As the ruling BJP often accuses Congress of trying to appease a minority community, Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Council BK Hariprasad said citizens have a right to get their welfare looked after by the government. The welfare schemes for a community cannot be termed as ‘appeasement’, Hariprasad told The New Sunday Express during an interaction with the newspaper’s editors and staff. Excerpts.
What is the scenario in Karnataka Congress now?
After 2018, we had a bad stint with the JDS. After the collapse of the coalition government, we had to start on our own.The way people are taking part in our programmes shows their frustration towards
the BJP government. Congress has picked up from the scrap and we are in a comfortable position. People have realised that it is only Congress that will come to their aid. Corruption is rampant. During the pandemic, a heavy amount was to be paid for the cremation of the dead. The pandemic was a turning point for us to make people realise that we are there for their service.
Do you think the intensity of hate has gone up?
Hate was there, but it was underground. They were thinking twice about expressing it in their speeches. Now they are making all kinds of statements which should not be made.
Legislature session will start on February 10. What are the issues Congress is planning to take up?
Price rise, Police Sub-Inspector recruitment scam, reduction of scholarships to students from weaker sections, strictures passed by the High Court on the government’s failure to provide uniforms to school students. Many serious issues are there, and we will try to corner the government on all those issues. They never allowed us to speak on those issues in the last session. The moment we raised those issues they adjourned the House sine die. Now we have to take up those issues.
The CM will be presenting his budget on February 17. How do you look at it?
It will be a populist budget and a lot of freebies will be announced. But people will not trust them as they know what their freebies are. People are not happy with the reduction of rice from seven kgs to five kgs through ration shops. Though Siddaramaiah may claim it was his programme, it was the programme of Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singhji when the Food Security Act was passed. Now they have changed the name to Garib Kalyan Yojana. They are known only to change the labels. They don’t have any concrete programmes for the people.
How do you look at the Congress prospects at the national level ahead of the 2024 polls?
We will not say that we will come to power, but the same thing applies to BJP too. Their numbers will reduce. It all depends on the regional satraps. On their own, the BJP has won only three states, the rest of the states managed to come to power through “Operation Kamala” (getting legislators from other parties to join BJP). So in the next elections, they will have serious problems in Maharashtra, MP. They have a chance in Rajasthan. If they are so popular, they would not have lost in Delhi to AAP. The AAP is BJP’s B-team.
You say, in Rajasthan BJP has a chance…?
There are internal issues (within Congress). Khargeji is handling it and we will manage it.
Edigas are a fairly large community, is Congress trying to make a point by bringing you as the Opposition leader in the Council?
It is not connected with any caste or community, it is only to counter BJP. I have never played caste politics in my life, and that was how I survived in Delhi for 25 years. There was a little gap fighting BJP, now BJP also feels the punch when I speak. I have come here to counter BJP and nothing else.
Do you see a change in the present student movement?
The problem is that Congress failed to create awareness
about the freedom struggle, Constitution and democracy (among the students). It is our own fault. The entire Congress party was confined to being an election machinery — just get a ticket and get elected….Ideologically, if we had trained our cadre, things would not have been this bad.
Apart from Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar many have chief ministerial ambitions. What is the aspiration of the party’s workers?
They are not saints like Yogi Adityanath, they are politicians. They have got their ambition and nothing is wrong. But until this moment nothing has come out. It’s only the guesswork of some people. They cannot go beyond that. With Kharge being at the helm of affairs, he will not let these people go out of control. He has much experience as a Union minister and PCC president. Party workers feel these people should not fight, and there is no fight. The party workers want Congress to come back to power.
Which way do you feel will the minorities’ votes go?
No problem with the minorities as they will not vote BJP. But they don’t come out in full strength to vote for Congress either. Sometimes they may vote JD(S) also. But the JD(S) got exposed for not having a stand. I interacted with the minorities and they feel that Congress should be open with regard to their ideological stand, and they feel ultimately that the Congress party can protect the Constitution.
Will AAP make an impact in Karnataka?
In Gujarat, the BJP national president did not campaign. But (Prime Minister) Modi and Amit Shah went to the tribal areas and pumped money for people to vote for the AAP and defeated the Congress party. But in Karnataka, it will not work as AAP is unlikely to get candidates for all the 224 assembly constituencies.
Do you think Muslims have no alternative to Congress?
You cannot push any community to the wall as they will tolerate it to some extent and then fringe elements do something. Why blame everybody in general? SDPI cannot be an alternative. For that matter, even the Muslim League couldn’t be an alternative and also Owaisi’s AIMIM. Muslims are not uneducated or uncivilized….They have huge patience. When we talk of the Hindus and Muslims we should look back at history. India was never communal, and was the most secular country in the world.
BJP questions minorities’ appeasement politics of Congress?
What is ‘appeasement’? Citizens have the right to get their welfare looked after by the government when they pay the taxes. When we announce welfare schemes for a community, one cannot say it’s ‘appeasement’. We brought land reforms wherein the landless became the land owners. Now, it’s not the tiller, but those who are rich landowners (referring to the restrictions removed under 79a and 79b of the acts to buy the farmlands). This is a vast difference between Congress and BJP in their approach. Right from their inception as Jan Sangh in 1951 and also before 1925 when they had formed the Hindu Mahasabha, it was purely communal…not to work on welfare measures such as health, hunger or poverty. We did implement schemes for the people giving them their rights such as the MNREGA, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), and the health and food security act. But the moment we gave some names, it was branded as ‘appeasement’.
Congress fights on old issues. To counter BJP, what is the new thing that Congress would like to do?
What new thing is the BJP doing? From 1952 we have been doing it. We are in a welfare state where the basic needs of the people are important. Although many might proudly say we are the fifth largest economy, remember there are stark reminders like the Human Development Index wherein we stand at 132nd position out of 190 countries. People will compare what is our contribution and what is their contribution. Let me put it this way: in Karnataka there are 26 dams, out of which 20 are built by the Congress while five were built by the colonial British and one was built by the erstwhile Maharaja. The problem with Congress leaders is they feel reticent and shy to speak about the enormous contribution of Congress. In contrast, we have the BJP, which repeats their lies 100 times and makes people believe it as the truth. As far as social media is concerned, sometimes it feels like this mobile has killed us. And then remember that Congress brought in the telecom revolution but it was counterproductive for us. But on the flip side, looking at the West Bengal elections, BJP’s social media was dominating 70 per cent share while Congress went up from 20 to about 30 per cent. But TMC was only about 6 per cent. Once people realised social media was littered with fake information. But then who won? Laloo Prasad’s meetings are amazing. Without smartphones, their meetings are organised.
How was the response in Kashmir to Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’?
In Kashmir, we thought we would stop in Jammu. Then they said we should proceed up to Srinagar. But suddenly everything changed. They said there was a security lapse. But it was not really a security lapse as people would imagine. The forces assumed there would be only limited crowd participation in the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. But, people started pouring out of their homes in such huge and unprecedented numbers, perhaps the biggest numbers after 1952. Such large crowds turned up on the streets as he entered. Clearly, the forces were caught unawares. Suddenly, Rahul Gandhi had to stop. The kind of love the people showered on Rahul Gandhi in Kashmir is unimaginable.
What are the challenges before the Congress party in the run-up to the assembly polls? Especially to win the majority?
There are many. They (BJP) will try to stoke communal feelings. They may recreate Paresh Mesta-kind of incidents to falsely implicate a section of the society.
How is your relationship with Siddaramaiah? Have you people patched it up with each other?
I am a Congressman. There was no clash. I clashed only when they compromised with my (Congress) ideology. I do not accept anybody soft-peddling or doing soft Hindutva. We should go by the Constitution and be protectors of the same.
What made you want to join politics?
I am a product of MES College (Malleswaram, Bengaluru). When I got elected to the college, there was a huge agitation against Basavalingappa (then minister) after he called Kannada literature Bhoosa (cattle feed). Basavalingappa called all of us and played the record. Roshan Baig and I went against the huge crowd. We supported Basavalingappa. Everyone was shocked wondering who these two boys (Hariprasad and Baig) were. Indira Gandhi’s election in Chikmagalur gave a completely different twist, and I was appointed General Secretary of All India National Students Union….
What would you have become if you didn’t get into politics? What do you do in your spare time?
I wanted to be a chartered accountant. I got into studying BCom. You know, in those days they would mock at Bcom students as ‘Buddhi Kammi’ (“less brains”). In those days I used to travel to Delhi twice every month. I had journalist friends who encouraged me into reading books. I read books in my spare time. The first book I read was Freedom at Midnight (Written by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre), which in the past forty years I have read about five times, and each time I get fresh revelations and understanding.