The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka has outperformed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) so-called ‘Gujarat model of development’ on most indicators, says the Congress’ Rajya Sabha member and research department chief M V Rajeev Gowda. A professor of economics and social sciences at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, from 2000-2014, Gowda has a doctorate in public policy and management from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. In an interview with Archis Mohan, Gowda says investment and job generation in Karnataka have been much higher than Gujarat. Edited excerpts:
Is the Karnataka election yet another in a series of elections or do you think it would be a narrative-setting election for the next year, including for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls?
It is a game-changing election. It signals the resurgence of the Congress and the end of the so-called ‘Modi magic’. It also demonstrates that people will vote for governance track record, able leadership and fulfilled promises, rather than just jumlas, or slogans, and election speeches and various kinds of technological hoopla.
How do you see the use of money power in this election?
When do you need to spend money? When you don’t have a governance track record. The BJP, and its party chief Amit Shah are pumping money in advertisements. They now also have B S Yeddyurappa and the Reddy brothers who are overflowing with money.
Historically, the people of Karnataka have shown themselves as a very wise people. They know the BJP is bad for Karnataka. A vote for the Janata Dal (Secular) is a vote for the BJP. Even this drummed-up hung Assembly prediction will convince people to vote for the Congress. The people of Karnataka do not want to relive the nightmare of the years of BJP government from 2008 to 2013.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh has expressed his concern over Prime Minister Narendra Modi attempting to communally polarise the Karnataka Assembly polls…
This has become a standard practice for the BJP. But in the 2013 Assembly polls, with their laboratories of communal polarisation, they had managed to bag only one seat each in the coastal belt of Karnataka and a little bit of the hilly region, in Uttar Kannada and Udupi. Similar things will happen again this time. (Congress President) Rahul Gandhi has received tremendous response in the region. There is disgust among the public over BJP’s dead-body hunting, where any and every death is being used to polarise people.
PM Modi and BJP have made corruption during the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government their main poll plank…
The BJP government’s five years from 2008 to 2013 were a nightmare for the state. Karnataka saw three chief ministers in those five years. All changes at the top were preceded by tremendous build-ups of chaos and infighting. We were treated to the horrible spectacle of ministers and legislators constantly fighting each other.
Then democracy itself was subverted and legislators from different parties were induced to leave their parties and contest again. Many of them won, but it was a lot of wasted expenditure and negation of the original mandate of the people. Later, independent MLAs, earlier made ministers, were junked. They rebelled and then the vote of confidence on the floor was not done correctly, either. The constitutional processes were given a go-by.
The corruption in those five years was spectacular. The Reddy brothers went about redrawing the state’s boundaries for their loot. Most of this was illegal mining. Somebody would be given a licence for a particular area, and then they would mine in forest land, or government land. They were essentially amassing wealth that belonged to the people of Karnataka.
The two ministers incharge for Bengaluru were involved in land fraud, and one of them ended up going to jail along with his son. Three MLAs resigned when they were caught watching porn in the Assembly. All of these people have been given party tickets this time. Modi’s speeches are an attempt to divert attention away from the really coarse and ugly reality of what the Karnataka BJP stands for, and also what BJP stands for nationally.
Nobody in Karnataka is going to believe their advertising campaign on poor law-and-order and ‘goondaraj’. The Siddaramaiah government has succeeded in delivering good social schemes, as well as economic development.
Congress has showcased its social welfare schemes. But what about economic growth and investments?
Karnataka has been one of the hottest states for investment. Karnataka’s conversion rate from commitments made during investment summits organised by the Siddaramaiah government has been much higher than even Gujarat.
People from across India continue to come to live and work in Karnataka. Bengaluru continues to be the country’s start-up capital. The challenge is for infrastructure to match the basic growth. At one level it is a good problem to have.
At the same time, the Congress government has been very focused on people who are left behind. From the very start, we allocated funds for Dalits and tribals proportionate to their respective population. This is in total contrast to what the Modi government has done in Delhi. We have endeavoured to ensure that the basic needs of the people are met.
We have come up with several programmes to have subsidised food, including rice, other foodgrains, milk and egg, reaching people. Investments have been made in urban and rural housing.
In cities, we have launched ‘Indira canteens’ to alleviate the plight of migrant workers. They come to the city and find themselves failing to remit any money back home because money is going towards their transportation and food expenses. At Indira canteens, we are providing nutritious food at a very affordable cost. Other schemes have reduced infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate, and improved mothers' health and birth weight of infants.
Farm distress is a problem, and so is water scarcity...
The state has, or say most of its regions have, suffered successive years of drought. We have taken steps for water conservation with the farm pond scheme. Massive drip irrigation projects have been launched.
Farm distress and farmer suicides are a problem across India. Agrarian distress is worse in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and other BJP-ruled states. There are larger systemic problems with agriculture. We have come up with interventions that have reduced farmer distress significantly, and we have prevented a lot worse from happening.
We have waived off the cooperative banks’ farm loans. The loans by public-sector bank can only be written off by the Centre. The state government successfully implemented the farmer e-mandi network. The NITI Aayog has pointed out that farm incomes in Karnataka have gone up by 34 per cent.
There have also been skill development programmes. Both IT and biotechnology sectors have been supported. The state has one of the lowest unemployment rates in India. It was the UPA government that gave the Hyderabad Karnataka region a 371J Constitution status, which led to better outcomes in the region and expansion of government schools and hospitals.
Nobody is particularly upset with the Siddaramaiah government. There is absolutely no anti-incumbency. If there is any issue, it is that people with their traditional loyalties might stick to those loyalties.