BJP and congress: two sides of the same coin

On June 10, police opened fire at farmers protesting about a shortage in fertilisers that they said may doom their crops. Siddalingappa Churi, one of the farmers, was killed in the firing. Reports say he lay wounded on the street for over an hour and a half, while the police watched, preventing any of his family members from attending to him.

The next day, Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa came to the town, spent barely twenty minutes, but ensured a photo-op with Churi’s mother, who was handed a ‘compensation’ cheque of Rs. 2 lakh.

No action has been taken against the officials from the police or the district administration. In fact, Yeddyurappa has rejected a judicial probe into the firing, and has asked an official from the district administration, potentially responsible for the firing, to enquire into the incident.

Just ten days before the firing, Karnataka was witness to the swearing in ceremony of a new government. The BJP, led by BS Yeddyurappa, had formed the party’s first solo government south of the Vindhyas.

Yeddyurappa had successfully wooed rural voters by distinguishing himself as a ryot benefactor rather than an urban centric leader, as SM Krishna, former Chief Minister (CM) and the Congress’ face for the elections, is largely perceived across the state.

Throughout the elections, the BJP’s CM candidate promised farmers that he would focus his energy on their concerns, unlike Krishna, often blamed for having forgotten rural Karnataka while transforming Bangalore into India’s IT hub. 

But it took less than two weeks for Yeddyurappa’s promises to shatter, with the state police resorting to firing – above the waist, as television pictures show – at farmers agitated about a fertiliser crunch.

If farmers can’t demand fertilisers on time without being fired on, this is certainly no farmers’ government.

But were the preceding Congress or Janata Dal (Secular) governments better?

During both Krishna’s tenure (1999-2004) and the Dharam Singh (Cong.)- Kumaraswamy (JD(S)) reign (2004-2008), Karnataka witnessed greater farmer suicides than ever before in the state’s recorded history. Ironically, it was Yeddyurappa, who as then Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, had asked for Dharam Singh’s resignation for the government’s inability to save the lives of farmers.

Criminalisation

The BJP, during campaigning before the polls, attacked the Congress and JD(S) for their corruption, lampooning the two parties for the criminal cases against their MLA's. Indeed, scams a plenty were unearthed during the past four years.

But the 110 MLA's of the BJP elected to the Karnataka Assembly this time include 25 with criminal antecedents – almost one in every four. The cases against them range from

forgery and tax evasion to sexual harassment, rioting, spreading communal tension and attempts to murder.

Clearly, corruption and criminalisation as the cherished means of rule are not limited to any one party.

The political system and process in place in our country ensures that one or the other party of the ruling class comes into power to carry on one single agenda. This is the agenda of globalisation, liberalisation, and privatisation. What people in Karnataka are witnessing is a phase where BJP will implement this anti worker, anti-peasant and anti-national agenda in place of Congress and other parties. In many states of Northern and Western India, people have already witnessed both BJP and Congress implementing this agenda.

The people of Karnataka are not passive spectators to the attacks of the bourgeoisie and its governments. They are organising resistance. People must get together to chart out a course of action, which will not only make resistance more effective, but also open the space for working people to become masters of their own destiny.