Politicos drown in sea of arrogance: SM Krishna
Bengaluru: Is the old guard in the ruling Congress party ganging up against Chief Minister Siddarmaiah, still considered a ‘newcomer’ in the party?
A day after Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge took potshots at Mr Siddaramaiah saying he could not be compared to former CM Devraj Urs, it was the turn of former external affairs minister S.M. Krishna to add to the CM’s embarrassment. Mr Krishna in his inimitable style stated that Urs belonged to a rare breed of leaders who used to take everyone into confidence while making major decisions. He was careful not to mention that Mr Siddaramaiah was not doing this though he sent out enough hints to this effect.
Congress general secretary, B.K. Hariprasad and party veteran M.V. Rajashekaran too took swipes at Mr Siddaramaiah at a programme where the CM camp was conspicuous by its absence.
The event was organised to mark the birth centenary of Urs and the 71st birth anniversary of former PM late Rajiv Gandhi. Mr Krishna wondered how present-day leaders could behave so arrogantly soon after getting power. “I wonder how power can change a man so drastically. I am 83-years-old and still a student of politics. There are leaders who have just crossed 60 (Read Siddu) but have become too egotistic. Whenever they talk, they talk only about themselves. If such leaders want to become a second Urs, they must emulate his style of politics too,” Mr Krishna remarked.
Urs was a great leader who wanted land reforms to be implemented and cleverly chose influential Vokkaliga leader Hucchmasti Gowda as his revenue minister to ensure that the changes were made without much difficulty. “Are today's politicians capable of this? I do not think so, they are drowned in sea of arrogance and do not want to come out of it, power has corrupted them completely,” he sarcastically remarked.
AICC general secretary, B. K. Hariprasad said the days of Urs are gone. Urs was a leader who promoted grassroots workers rather than moneybags in elections.
“He maintained that moneybags must be kept out of politics. Today it has changed. One more thing has changed- the culture of leaders who claim they are secular and the voice of the oppressed but eventually, when they get power, they forget secularism as well as becoming the voice of the oppressed, instead, they strive hard to become their own community’s leader,” he observed.
Another senior leader, M.V. Rajashekharan explained incidents associated with the Urs government in the early Seventies while Mallikarjun Kharge reminisced his 11-year-long association with Urs.
