'D K Shi' in his political labyrinth

D.K. Shivakumar: Congress's Crisis Manager, Karnataka's Kingmaker

by Rasheed Kidwai

Published by Hachette India

280 pages ₹699

 

Few leaders in contemporary Indian politics seem to evoke the kind of fascination that the current Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar does. 

After all, he is one among that brand of leaders that has dominated the national political imagination over the past decade: The decisive leader. Indeed, he is commonly referred to as the strongman of the Congress. In his home base of Kanakapura on the outskirts of Bengaluru, he is called, sometimes with fear, the  bande or rock because he has withstood all manner of challenges to his unbroken string of electoral victories. 

 

The fascination with Mr Shivakumar, or D K Shi in Karnataka, is not without reason. His political career seems tailor-made for a compelling book. 

Rising through the ranks, Mr Shivakumar has been fiercely loyal to his party. While he has repeatedly been the “trouble-shooter”, safeguarding hapless legislators from being poached by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he has never shied away from expressing his ambition. When denied the chance to become chief minister in 2023, he made his displeasure amply clear. His patience was finally rewarded this July when he became the chief minister. 

So, there could be no better time than this for veteran journalist Rasheed Kidwai’s biography, D K Shivakumar: Congress’s Crisis Manager, Karnataka’s Kingmaker.  

Over 240 pages, Mr Kidwai tries to provide readers a sketch of the politician, help locate him in the labyrinth of Karnataka’s politics, highlight his steep rise, underline his democratic credentials, laud his electoral nous, put forth his vision for the state, and capture his multi-faceted personality as a businessman-politician. This is no easy task and Mr Shivakumar does not lend himself to easy portrayals. 

The best part of Mr Kidwai’s book may well be its timing. It will, no doubt, find an interested audience. The writer clearly seems to have forged a connection with his subject, which comes through in some anecdotes. However, these tend to veer towards the banal and reveal woefully little about the astute political player who has enjoyed obvious success. 

There are details of his early years in student politics, which may be handy for the lay reader. It has interesting details about his early forays in electoral politics, about the young leader’s fearlessness in challenging former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda in an electoral contest. One key issue that stands out in this book is that it unfortunately either omits or does not dwell deeply enough on some key elements of Mr Shivakumar’s life that may have provided a more rounded view. 

For instance, the book barely does justice to the one abiding relationship that Mr Shivakumar himself has cherished — with his former mentor S M Krishna. Relations were so close between them that they were able to look past Mr Krishna’s switch to the  BJP towards the end of his life. 

As one of India’s wealthiest politicians, he has often been dogged by allegations of corruption, has been questioned by investigative agencies for amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. As a politician hailing from the landed Vokkaliga community that dominates southern Karnataka, he is not an underdog either. 

The book’s weakest section is the one dealing with his vision for Karnataka, beyond some planned infrastructure projects. There is also what looks like a mini-résumé set out in bullet points, which seems to be out of place. 

In other aspects, too, the book seems to shy away from engaging with its subject. For instance, the reader is repeatedly told about Mr Shivakumar’s electoral credentials. However, there is no deeper exploration of how that was achieved. Indeed, there is little evidence of a grand strategy beyond what has now become a template: An election management firm-driven outreach blitz.  

There is no mention of one of Mr Shivakumar’s lowest points. This was 2013, when the Congress had won a majority after seven years in the wilderness. Siddaramaiah, an outsider to the party, was chosen as the chief minister by party legislators. And in keeping with his anti-corruption campaign, he kept Mr Shivakumar out because there were allegations of corruption against him. Even later, many Congress leaders have indicated privately that their trouble-shooter may be more trouble than they bargained for. 

What could have been insightful was for a veteran journalist like Mr Kidwai to locate Mr Shivakumar in the current context of Indian democracy. Why has he reached the position he has in Karnataka at this particular juncture? What does this tell us about him and, more importantly, Karnataka? 

Finally, the book uses the ideological visions of the Congress manifesto and there is little from Mr Shivakumar himself. How does he intend to govern the state? What is his vision for Karnataka, a deeply unequal state, beyond Bengaluru? Will he continue the Siddaramaiah model of welfare “guarantee” delivery or does he have a different vision? Will he retain his predecessor’s outreach to the backward classes, Dalit and minority communities? 

Most importantly, how does he intend to differentiate between the Congress and the BJP at this moment? Some within his party were alarmed at his decision to sing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s anthem within the Karnataka Assembly last year, for which he apologised later.   

This book and its subject are symptomatic of the current juncture of Indian politics, where deeper ideological engagement is subordinated to electoral victories won by “strongmen”.