Karnataka’s Bridal Brouhaha

A scheme for Muslim women gives the opposition pre-poll ammunition against the Congress in an electorally crucial state

A government dole for Muslim brides of poor families by the Congress in Karnataka has become a political handle for the opposition against the party. Under the scheme, each beneficiary bride is to get cash and household goods worth a sum total of Rs 50,000. In denouncing the sop, former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa has stolen the thunder of other opposition parties trying to contain the Congress, which won power in the state polls held in May this year and hopes to sustain its surge in next year’s Lok Sabha election.

The opposition sensed in this scheme a ploy by the Congress to keep Muslim voters from favouring the Janata Dal-Secular and even the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) led by Yeddyurappa, both of which have been contenders for minority support. A war of words soon got underway, with charges of ‘minority appeasement’ hurled at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s government. This, plus a 24/7 sit-in by Yeddyurappa, who wants all brides eligible for the scheme, has rattled the Congress so much that it has decided to extend the scheme to all minorities.

Within a week of Yeddyurappa’s protest, the CM announced that the scheme will soon be extended to Christian, Jain, Buddhist, Sikh and Parsi women of poor families. “If it has been mentioned that only Muslim women are eligible, it will be changed to include all minorities,” announced the CM nonchalantly, knowing well that such a notification cannot be effected at short notice.

Yes, Karnataka has Sikh residents too; living mostly in the Bidar district that houses the Gurudwara Shri Nanak Jhira, they constitute 0.03 per cent of the state’s population. As for Parsi women, most are of affluent households and so it is unclear if they would be keen on such a scheme. The eligibility criteria of this so-called Bidai scheme, now dubbed Shaadi Bhagya, includes an annual family income of under Rs 1.5 lakh per annum; also, both the bride and groom must be above the legal permissible age for marriage. Widows and divorcees in economic deprivation are eligible too.

As observers see it, the inclusion of other minority groups does not obscure the fact that most beneficiaries would be Muslim. According to the 2011 Census, Karnataka’s Muslim population is just under 6.5 million—or 12.2 per cent of the state’s total. In fact, eligible women of the community have already been identified and a target set for every district this fiscal year. The state’s Directorate of Minority Welfare has selected 1,000 such brides this fiscal and set aside Rs 5 crore for the scheme. A circular sent to all district administrations earlier makes it clear that only the poorest among the poor should be selected from applicants of the community.

Qamarul Islam, Karnataka’s minister for minorities, has also underlined the fact that the money spent on the scheme was not a fresh allocation but a sum drawn from the pre-existent budget of the Karnataka Minority Development Corporation, which gives out self-employment loans—mainly to minority menfolk—for the purchase of autorickshaws and cabs and setting up of small-scale manufacturing units. This is also the state agency that doles out education grants and other subsidies to minorities. “The Bidai scheme was passed in the budget, which was debated by everyone in the state Assembly,” says the minister, “Some politicians are unnecessarily raking it up now as general elections are round the corner.”

Yeddyurappa’s argument is that there are poor women in all communities who need a helping hand from the State and that governments should not distinguish between them. “They should also be eligible for the Shaadi Bhagya scheme,” he has said, “When I was CM, all state programmes were meant for all communities and I did not offer a particular community any such privilege.”

The former CM’s argument seems to have the backing of some Muslim women as well. A few of them were spotted at his protest venue. One of them, identifying herself as Shakeena Bhanu, said that government policies should not divide people. “Yeddyurappaji has done a lot for minorities who were outside the ambit of normal government schemes,” she said, “We will always remember him for his progressive ways.”

On its part, the Congress dismissed Yeddyurappa’s apparent Muslim support as being a show of ‘rented’ crowds. Congressmen say that he is fighting for political relevance now that he sees no chance of going back to his former party, the BJP.

Yeddyurappa was asked to step down as the BJP’s CM in mid-2011 by the party’s central leadership in the wake of allegations of corruption with the promise that he would be reinstated before the May 2013 polls. Once it was clear that the BJP had indeed dumped him, though, he left and floated the KJP; in the May 2013 Assembly polls, his fledgling party won six seats. After Gujarat CM Narendra Modi was named the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the General Election of 2014, Yeddyurappa was expected to merge his party with the BJP. But such a homecoming has not been possible for him as a section of the party opposes his return on the argument that his taint of corruption would weaken its anti-graft stance against the Congress.

But now the wily regional satrap appears to have stolen a march over the BJP on this issue. Yeddyurappa began his sit-in on the night of 31 October in front of a Mahatma Gandhi bust in Bangalore, and in his inimitable style has promised to take the agitation to other districts and particularly to Belgaum, where an annual Assembly session will be held later this month in the all-new Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, Karnataka’s second legislature complex. The former CM has vowed to keep up his ‘struggle’ against the scheme until the state government extends it to poor women of the majority community as well.

While Yeddy has snatched the issue from right under the BJP’s nose, the saffron party is ruing a lost chance to attack the Congress for its so-called ‘minority appeasement’, its traditional grouse against the grand old party.

The Bidai scheme has angered some backward class and Dalit leaders of the Congress too. “There are ten times more poor women who are of backward, other backward classes and Dalit communities,” says a Congress MLA from central Karnataka, “Why is the government helping only Muslim women? In fact, it goes against Siddaramaiah’s professed Ahinda politics, which brings together people of backward classes, minorities and Dalits. Why is he doing this injustice to us? We have to answer the people.”

The controversy comes at a time when differences within the Siddaramaiah government are reaching a peak, as the current CM has successfully kept the old guard out of his scheme of power in Bangalore. Congress leaders of the old guard are piqued with Siddaramaiah’s style of functioning and the fact that he left leaders considered ‘tainted’ out of his cabinet even though they’d been elected as MLAs.

Recent bypoll victories have taken the Congress’ tally of Lok Sabha seats in the state to nine, but the grand old party still cannot be sure of making significant gains in 2014, since current opinion polls indicate that it would be hard for it to trounce the BJP, which holds 18 of the state’s 28 parliament seats at present. The KJP’s rise and Narendra Modi’s elevation within the BJP are said to be causing anxiety in Congress circles, and a loss of confidence in its prospects could spell trouble from old timers as polls approach. A seasoned state leader close to Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi has been letting it be known within various party fora that if Siddaramaiah fails to deliver at least 15 seats next year, he would be asked to step down as CM. Those close to the CM, however, dismiss such talk as ‘pure nonsense’ and say he has the firm backing of the Congress High Command in Delhi.

Adding to the suspense in Karnataka is the prospect of an electoral alliance between the KJP and the BJP for 2014. To counter the effect of such a pact, the Congress would need the en bloc support of minorities in the state. But this would be at the risk of alienating the vast Lingayat vote, which could again move in favour of Yeddyurappa.

Nothing can be taken for granted in Karnataka at this juncture.

About The Author

Anil Budur Lulla