Bengaluru: Quick: What have a pair of crows, a lemon, and an assembly resolution moved after expiry of 'Rahu Kaala' got to do with an inter-state river dispute?
Well, read on.
The Cauvery dispute where the Supreme Court has consistently dismissed Karnataka's pleas and positions against sharing water with Tamil Nadu is widely expected to spill over to the state assembly polls scheduled for early 2018.
The prospect of an electoral drought has state chief minister Siddaramaiah so worried that – if sources close to him are to be believed – he is resorting to the supernatural.
Well, give him this much, our man has never claimed to be atheist or agnostic despite his public image as a "rationalist" CM. He reiterated that position to News18 once again when this correspondent contacted him for this story.
"If others claim that I am an atheist, what can I do? You ask them," Siddaramaiah said.
But both friends and foes alike point out that the chief minister had always carefully played on his Socialist past to project the image of a rationalist, reformer-politician who has turned his back on superstitions. Both his predecessors – BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda – never really dismissed occult practices.
In 1996-97 then then PM Gowda had performed a mega 'yaaga' ostensibly to save his chair. But a few months later Gowda lost the New Delhi throne, his astrologer died a pauper a few years later. As for Yeddyurappa, lemons, ash gourd and broken bangles found outside the state Vidhan Soudha immediately after a no-confidence motion in 2010 against the then CM had made news.
Well, then again there are those who point out that Siddaramaiah's image as a "rationalist" is a thing of the past, something he discarded as he moved on from the Janata Parivaar to the Congress. They have a point. The day after his Congress party won the polls with Siddaramaiah as their CM-designate, he fixed an auspicious time for his swearing in after consulting an astrologer in Bengaluru.
When this reporter asked him then about his sudden belief in stars and planets, Siddaramaiah said that his wife was a religious person and she had actually consulted astrologers to fix an auspicious time.
"When you are in power, you will have to believe in all these things," he replied, smiling ear-to-ear.
Ironically, a year later, the same Siddaramaiah proposed an anti-superstition bill aimed at curbing a few ancient Hindu practices considered superstitious. Sure, he backtracked on that one after a few in his own party besides Opposition BJP and JDS raised a stink.
The last-man standing in Congress party’s once-impressive roster of chief ministers – discounting smaller hill states – seems to have had a genuine rethink on that one. Those in his close circles say that it was around this time that they started noticing a marked change in his behavior. He suddenly started performing poojas and yagnas, a real change of heart for a committed socialist.
And then there is the incident of the 'crow on the bonnet'. Three month ago, a few news photographers milling around Bengaluru power circuit observed a crow sitting on the bonnet of the CM's official car. Regional TV channels picked it up and went to town announcing that bad times were awaiting the CM because, apparently, a crow on a car has destroyed many a political career!
Of course, the chief minister, a committed socialist, rubbished those claims. Yet, the next morning, he changed his official car.
As it turned out, bad news followed on both the political and the personal front for the CM. Two senior police officers committed suicide within two weeks gap, one of whom blamed the state home minister and CM-confidante KJ George that eventually led to his resignation (he was reinstated early this week after a court dismissed charges).
A few days after Siddaramaiah came out of that crisis, the worst happened. His elder son and heir-apparent Rakesh died after suddenly falling sick during his Belgium tour.
The astrologers in Karnataka went berserk blaming the crow on the bonnet for the disasters suggesting the CM need to quickly resort to the supernatural to ward off the evil powers acting against him.
On the last day of this August, Siddaramaiah went around his hometown Mysore holding a lemon in his hand. Several Kannada news channels carried video footage of the Chief Minister tightly holding a lemon in his right hand all through the day. He even spoke to media raising his hand showing the lemon to photographers. But he refused to comment on it. According to media reports, either a Muslim Maulvi or a Hindu seer had given him that lemon to ward off evil powers.
"He believes that some evil power is harming his family. He is now worried about the safety of his other family members. Some astrologers have advised him to perform special poojas to ward off evil powers," an MLA close to the chief minister told CNN News18.
A week later, a controversial self-styled god-man called Chandrashekhara Swamy (whose claim to fame is "predicting" the wedding of Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan) claimed that he has sighted a "white crow" on the banks of Cauvery river and it might cause irreparable damage to the CM.
He had warned that the Cauvery dispute would bring Siddaramaiah government to an end. He had warned that the Cauvery dispute would bring Siddaramaiah government to an end. Whether it was a white crow or a black crow, the river water dispute is unsettling the CM.
A week later the Supreme Court delivered a body blow to the Siddaramaiah government by ordering it to release more water to Tamil Nadu. All pleas by his government before the SC failed, including a review petition filed this week. The CM is now set on a collision course with the judiciary.
It was lost on none that the one-day special session of the Assembly to discuss the SC verdict was called only after the expiry of Rahu Kaala – the time period during a day when one is not supposed to undertake anything auspicious as per devout Hindu beliefs.
So, once again, we posed the question straight to Siddaramaiah. Has the "committed socialist" comprehensively moved over to the other side where he believes only the supernatural can save his chair?
Once again, Siddaramaiah didn't mince words: "Didn’t I tell you that I am not an atheist? You can deduce the right answer".
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