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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. The series ends today.


The series ends today.


PART - 10


The Safety Strategy

“Don’t travel alone at night; travel in twos or keep someone informed,” says Komal Lath


Warriors of the Night

Komal Lath, Founder of Tute Consult, 39


Leading an all-women team means that Komal Lath, 39, has to look out for the safety of her colleagues when they are travelling or have events to attend. The founder of Tute Consult, an integrated marketing agency, the Mumbai-bred marketing professional started working at the age of 17 years and has worked with several brands over the past two decades. After gaining experience at various agencies, she started Tute in 2010 and has had brands like Carter, Priyanka Chopra, Pixi, Victoria’s Secret and Insight as among her high-profile clients. “The profession that I am in involves a lot of networking, socialising, meeting people, having to attend social gigs which does mean that in a quite a few cases, we have late evening and travel involved,” says Lath.


While she travels in her own car, she keeps a tab on her female colleagues when they are travelling home after a late evening. “I am not very open to my team members travelling by train late in the evening or even through dark alley streets. I insist they travel by uber-backed cabs which can be traced,” she says.

Recent cases of attacks on women have worried her even more. “Nothing seems safe anymore; not a school, not a college, not public transport for sure and not even private spaces,” says Lath. She confesses to waking up dreading some distressing news about attacks on women. It’s especially concerning for her because Lath, since the inception of her company, has led an all-girls team.


Like most women, she has her share of experiences with men trying to get too close for comfort in public spaces and even miscreants misbehaving. She recounts an incident in Delhi where she had taken her team for dinner to Hauz Khas after an event. A group of men started misbehaving with them. They went back to the restaurant and had to wait until the staff arranged taxis for them to return to their hotel. “What was even more scary is that the men looked like they came from decent families because of the way they were dressed. It’s scary and worrying,” says Lath who has offices in Mumbai and Delhi.


Women, she says, must be vigilant at all times. It’s essential to keep SOS numbers handy to be able to call trusted people in an emergency. “Don’t travel alone at night; travel in twos or keep someone informed so they can check on you,” she says. Lath recommends that women, when travelling at night, must take only cabs that can be traced at all times. “Keep someone informed about where you are off to,” she says. A final piece of advice she offers is to carry a big bag, a ‘weapon’ most women have used in crowded public areas such as railway stations, malls and markets. “You never know when you need to knock someone or their parts off.”

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