The Congress has promises to keep in Karnataka, but these shouldn’t derail reforms
Finally, the suspense over Karnataka’s new chief minister is over. The Congress managed to convince its state unit chief DK Shivakumar to take up the Deputy Chief Minister’s role. But it took more than four days for the grand old party to do that. Political pundits would analyse and speculate what made that possible, since both Shivakumar and his rival Siddaramaiah had dug their heels in. The claims made by both leaders were creditable; while Siddaramaiah is popular (the most favoured chief ministerial face across parties, as per an opinion poll before the Karnataka Assembly election was held), Shivakumar is known for his organisational prowess and resourcefulness. There is a theory that former party president Sonia Gandhi’s intervention clinched the deal. Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate cases against Shivakumar also, some say, played a role in the decision. The GOP apparently didn’t like the prospect of its chief minister getting arrested. The inordinately long parleys that preceded the decision are not new; it has happened with the Bharatiya Janata Party as well. In the case of the Congress, however, the stubborn stance of its two Kannadiga leaders took some of the shine off the party’s massive victory in the southern State. In the BJP too, there are ambitious leaders in States staking claim to the top office, but the problem doesn’t acquire alarming proportions. In the case of the GOP, however, the high command is often found inept in dealing with dissidence in the States under its control. The Gandhis’ fondness for Navjot Singh Sidhu cost Congress Punjab. Their inability to address the concerns of Jyotiraditya Scindia resulted in the fall of their government Madhya Pradesh. They haven’t been able to sort out the problems between Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot.
In Karnataka, the Congress Government will not have a cakewalk. The populist pledges it made in the run-up to the State election are estimated to cost the State exchequer around Rs 62,000 crore, and it would make the State fiscal deficit shoot up beyond 5 per cent, much about the 2.6 per cent at present and the 4 per cent limit set by the Finance Commission. Deterioration in the fiscal situation will have a baneful effect on the development of the State which is the country’s primary IT hub. The ill effects may come with a time lag, but they will come sooner rather than later. Economic reforms and capital expenditure will be big casualties. To be precise, reforms already are, as freebies militate against the spirit of liberalisation. As far as infrastructure funding is concerned, a fiscally strained State cannot benefit much, for the Narendra Modi Government has tied up capex loans with various reforms. Now that Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar will rule Karnataka, they must strike a balance between politics and economics. They must ensure that populism doesn’t trump economic policy.
