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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Fractured Crown

Between Siddaramaiah’s grip on power and Shivakumar’s restless ambition, the Karnataka Congress is trapped in a succession spiral. Karnataka Karnataka today has two chief ministers - one by office, the other by expectation. The power tussle between Siddaramaiah and his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar, has slipped so completely into the open that the Congress’s ritual denials sound like political farce. A whispered ‘understanding’ after the 2023 victory that each would get the CM’s post after...

Fractured Crown

Between Siddaramaiah’s grip on power and Shivakumar’s restless ambition, the Karnataka Congress is trapped in a succession spiral. Karnataka Karnataka today has two chief ministers - one by office, the other by expectation. The power tussle between Siddaramaiah and his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar, has slipped so completely into the open that the Congress’s ritual denials sound like political farce. A whispered ‘understanding’ after the 2023 victory that each would get the CM’s post after two-and-a-half years has hardened into a public confrontation between a chief minister determined to finish five years and a deputy increasingly unwilling to wait. The recent breakfast meeting between the two men at Siddaramaiah’s residence was presented as a truce where the ‘high command’ was invoked as the final arbiter. “There are no differences between us,” Siddaramaiah insisted, twice for emphasis. Few were convinced and soon, Shivakumar was again hinting darkly at change. For weeks, Shivakumar’s loyalists have been holding meetings, mobilising legislators and making pilgrimages to Delhi to get the Congress high command to honour its promise. They insist that the Congress leadership agreed to a rotational chief ministership in 2023 and that November 2025 was always meant to mark Shivakumar’s ascent. The high command, for its part, has perfected the art of strategic vagueness by neither confirming nor denying the pact. This suggests that the Congress does not merely hesitate to act against Siddaramaiah, but increasingly lacks the capacity to do so. From the outset of his second innings, Siddaramaiah has given no signal of easing aside. As he approaches January 2026, poised to overtake D. Devaraj Urs as Karnataka’s longest-serving chief minister, the symbolism is unmistakable. The mantle of social justice politics that Urs once embodied now firmly sits on Siddaramaiah’s shoulders. And it is this social coalition that shields him. His fortress is AHINDA - minorities, backward classes and Dalits. Leaked figures from the unreleased caste census suggest that these groups together approach or exceed two-thirds of the state’s population. Lingayats and Vokkaligas, once electorally dominant, are rendered numerical minorities in this arithmetic. Siddaramaiah governs not merely as a Congress leader, but as the putative custodian of Karnataka’s demographic majority. That claim is reinforced through policy. Minority scholarships have been revived, contractor quotas restored, residential schools expanded. More than Rs. 42,000 crore has been earmarked for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Kurubas, his own community, have been pitched for Scheduled Tribe status, with careful assurances that their elevation will not disadvantage others. DK Shivakumar brings organisational muscle, financial clout and control over the Vokkaliga heartland. In electoral campaigns, these are formidable assets. But in a confrontation with a leader who embodies a 60–70 percent social coalition, they are blunt instruments. The Congress high command understands this equation, even if it publicly pretends otherwise. It also remembers, uneasily, what Siddaramaiah did the last time his authority was constrained. In 2020, when the Congress–JD(S) coalition collapsed after 16 MLAs defected to Mumbai,13 of them hailed from Siddaramaiah’s camp. At the time, he held the post of coordination committee chairman. Instead, he emerged as the principal beneficiary of collapse, returning as Leader of the Opposition with a tighter grip on the party. If the Congress high command could not punish him then, it is doubtful it can coerce him now. Shivakumar’s predicament is thus more tragic than tactical. He is not battling a rival alone, but an entire political structure built to outlast him. The promised coronation looks increasingly like a mirage drifting just ahead of a man condemned to keep walking. For the Congress, the cost of this paralysis is already visible. A government elected on guarantees and governance is consumed by succession. The party’s authority is dissolving while its factions harden. The Congress returned to power in Karnataka after years in the wilderness, only to re-enact the same leadership dysfunction that has crippled it elsewhere. Regardless of whether Siddaramaiah survives this storm, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Congress cannot survive the slow corrosion of its command in one of the few states it holds today.

Setting Boundaries

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

We name our daughters Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati; we worship the divine feminine power in the temples but oppress, repress and even attack the feminine power amidst us. That is the irony in the way India sees its women.

After the safety of the daylight fades, women are seen as easy prey by the predators of the night.

We mark the nine nights of Navratri, the festival of the goddess, by celebrating the dedication and valour of nine real-life women who brave the challenges of the night to pursue their dreams.


PART - 6

Setting Boundaries

The public relations professional advises women to be aware of their surroundings while staying out late despite Mumbai being a relatively safe city

Setting Boundaries

She’s seen men stare her down on the streets of Mumbai but the crowds on the roads have always made her feel safe and confident even late at night. Chandana Buch, 35, a public relations professional working with The Other Circle is quick to draw a comparison between Mumbai and Delhi where she’s worked earlier. “Compared to Mumbai, Delhi is much more unsafe. With Delhi, I have had to face drunk driving almost every day during late evening commutes. It was way too scary and what was worse is that I couldn’t even abandon the taxi I was commuting in. Who wants to be left on streets in Delhi after dark? So, it was a tricky situation that nobody would want to be in,” says Buch who grew up in Gujarat’s Saurashtra in a large joint family. She recalls an incident in Delhi when a co-passenger in a taxi pool struck up a conversation with her and continued to “text stalk” her. “In Delhi, I clung on to my brother most of the times and only went out with my old and known friends. Eventually, I left the city after around 11 months,” she says.

Buch, who has been working for a decade now has lived in Mumbai and Delhi and for a brief period of time in Dallas, USA. While handling clients that have been businesses in the field of entertainment, lifestyle and real estate, late nights are usual for her. 

Despite the relative safety that Mumbai offers, it’s not that she’s been untouched by the actions of miscreants. She recalls being “intimidated by men staring” at her several times while travelling back home post midnight in Mumbai. “However, staying confident was easier because the streets were busy and crowded,” she says. The Shakti mills rape case where a woman photographer was raped in the middle of a dilapidated and isolated mill compound worried several working women back then. “When the Shakti mill incident that happened with a female photographer, it became a point of discussion for all of us women who worked in similar fields. It surely kept me much more alert and in caution for a long time about my timings and surroundings. Fortunately, I have never landed in a risky situation in Mumbai,” says Buch.

Buch is happy that her firm takes care to ensure the safety of its women employees and colleagues too have been caring and supportive. “The Group Head insists on knowing the details of our travel and ensures our safe return. I have had some wonderful colleagues in the past. We would make sure to drop each other safely and track rides until the last one gets home,” she says.

Making the cities safer, says Buch, is a process that has to start at home. “It has to start by sensitizing young boys and girls about respecting each other. Boys must be taught how to show respect and how to make the surroundings friendly and not intimidating for anyone,” she says. The best way to stay safe is to avoid prolonged work hours unless absolutely necessary. “Also set boundaries whenever and wherever required. Be aware of your surroundings when traveling for work or with new people,” is advice that Buch has for women who have to stay out of home beyond midnight.

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