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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.

Warriors of the NIght

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 - 1

Brave Shooter

VEENA GOKHALE CONTINUES TO SHINE AMID ERRATIC SCHEDULES AND LATE NIGHTS

Brave Shooter

Thirty-five years ago, when Veena Gokhale, 55, chose to be a photographer, her presence at events, heavy camera equipment perched on her shoulder, met with surprise. Undeterred by erratic schedules and late nights, she’s made a mark in the world of photography—from movies to weddings and events with more than 4000 weddings and 12 Marathi movies in her portfolio. “My profession has a new work schedule everyday. Late nights are frequent and sometimes stretch into the morning. My parents were worried about my marriage because everyone wanted a daughter-in-law who had fixed work timings. I refused to alter my career path to get someone to marry me,” she says. But life had other plans for her; at a wedding, she met a man who admired her passion and the two married. Her new family, she says, fully supported her passion. “My profession gave me my life partner too.”

While she’s rarely faced harassment at work, having “fortunately worked at weddings that involved well-behaved families”, she’s often boarded the last train at night after wrapping up a shoot. “The train used to be crowded, with the lady’s compartment full at capacity. That’s when I actually realised that I am not the only woman who is working at wee hours. Mumbai is full of such strong women, who fearlessly, and confidently set out in the middle of the night to do their shifts.”

Work challenges come in different forms and one such difficult shoot was at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace hotel in 2008. This was just two months before the dastardly attack of 26/11. She had to secretly shoot the daughter of a ‘sheikh’ from Dubai. The girl insisted on a lady photographer who could enter posing as a friend, maintain her privacy and not allow even her father to know that she had got a photo shoot done. “She wanted to get casual and candid pictures of herself clicked in different looks and costumes. lace. The girl wanted the pictures for her personal happiness, and she dreaded the dire consequences that would follow if the family found out,” says Gokhale.

Gokhale took up the assignment and they shot without a break for seven hours. “While talking to her, I was constantly acknowledging to myself how blessed we Indian women were compared to many out there. While I was fearlessly filming her, she was scared to even share it with her own father,” recalls Gokhale. But the end came with a surprise, for Gokhale bumped into a six and a half feet tall man. “He was the girl’s father; I was sweating but avoided eye contact and quickly left,” she says.

Over the past three decades, Gokhale has shot 4000 weddings, concerts, corporate events and worked on films such as Sade Made Teen, Gaiir and Harishchandrachi Factory.

Did she face discrimination or surprise at her choice of career? Yes, she says. But Gokhale chose to ignore them. “When I started my career, photography was a laborious job involving holding heavy machines on both the shoulders. However, I chose not to enjoy unnecessary sympathy being a woman. Gokhale has shot prominent personalities like Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, among others.

The best way to counter male chauvinism, says Gokhale, is for women to stop treating themselves differently. “Stop inviting pity and praise out of sympathy. Trust yourself, be confident and treat yourself equal to men. Once you treat yourself equal to men, the sky’s the limit as life is one big pool of opportunities. This attitude will help combat male chauvinism, she says. Gokhale advises caution while out for work-be alert, be communicative and be aware of who to contact when in crisis. “A good assessment of risk factors and adequate precautions are a few things that need to be remembered,” she says. With that in mind, there’s no stopping a determined woman.

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