Krishna will be remembered in Karnataka history as a leader who upheld civility in public life, a rare quality in contemporary politics.
Published Dec 10, 2024 | 12:36 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 10, 2024 | 12:36 PM
SM Krishna with former prime minister AB Vajpayee.
Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna was one of the few politicians in Karnataka who always maintained dignity in public life. He was a good parliamentarian and more than that, a statesman.
In addition, he was a very fortunate politician, having held numerous key positions during his nearly five-decade political career. He had to navigate carefully for some positions, while others came to him unbidden.
He exuded flair in everything he did, making his rivals envious. Even after being a chief minister for four and a half years, he never faced any rebellion within the Congress party!
Krishna was unlike a usual garish Mandya Vokkaliga, even though he belonged to the same caste and hailed from Maddur in the Mandya taluk. He never tried to position himself as the voice of the Vokkaligas.
He was from a peasant family but he never tilled the soil. From the time he was in school in Mysuru until he obtained a legal degree in the US, he received an excellent education. He was a Fulbright scholar.
The nonagenarian was a trusted Congressman till he joined the BJP in 2017.
It is unlikely that Karnataka will see an academically accomplished and well-mannered chief minister in the immediate future. Karnataka never witnessed him using lewd language, a practice that is unfortunately common today
His Kannada and English used to be equally chaste. Reading habits are largely absent among current politicians. However, Krishna was an avid reader. Newly released books were often seen on his home table.
He used to play tennis, design his costumes, and listen to good music. He loved driving high-end cars in his prime age. He had no hesitation in walking into the annual Chamarajapet’s Sri Rama Seva Mandali music conferences or to humour shows in Bengaluru.
Krishna’s political journey was well crafted. In the 1960s, as a student in the US, he campaigned for former president John F Kennedy. He was driven in a bullock cart from the train station to his house upon his return to Maddur!
When he was chief minister of Karnataka between October 1999 and May 2004, he was the driving force behind the establishment of the Bengaluru International Airport in Devanahalli. Bengaluru and its development had a special place in his heart.
When the media, by and large, argued that Devanahalli was too far from the city, he countered saying, “The airport location is ideal. It is hardly 32 km from the city. People will get used to it.” He has been proved right.
His journey as an independent MLA from Maddur in 1962 to his appointment as External Affairs Minister from 2009 to 2012 had been eventful and relatively without major hiccups.
Before joining the Congress, he was with the Praja Socialist Party. During these five decades, he became Union Minister of State twice, Chief Minister of Karnataka between 1999 and 2004, Karnataka Legislative Assembly Speaker, and Governor of Maharashtra.
He was a three-time Lok Sabha and two-time Rajya Sabha member. And much like others, he tasted defeat once in the Assembly and once in the Lok Sabha elections.
Krishna never disparaged the Congress party, even after joining the BJP in 2017. His loyalty shift at the age of 85 was ridiculed by Congress. But he never assigned any reasons for quitting. He held Indira Gandhi in high esteem.
In 2004, Sonia Gandhi was keen to make either Krishna or Manmohan Singh the prime minister. Krishna himself has mentioned this in his autobiography, Smritivahini.
Moreover, he should be credited for successfully strengthening the party in Karnataka as its state president. His pre-election Panchajanya Yatra was a huge draw. He was the one who easily assessed in 1999 that Ballari would be an ideal Lok Sabha constituency for Sonia Gandhi.
In 2004, he, as the chief minister, led the Congress party to early assembly elections and witnessed the BJP emerge as the single largest party. As many as 32 ministers of his cabinet had lost the poll battle.
His proactive chief minister image and media hype did not help him much. He resigned to witness his party becoming a coalition partner with the JD(S) to run the government. JD(S) supreme HD Deve Gowda chose to settle for Dharam Singh of the Congress as the chief minister despite the Congress Legislature Party electing Krishna as the first choice.
His extensive travel, reading, and significant administrative expertise helped him establish an image as a competent chief minister. However, he was accused of being manipulated by a small group of bureaucrats, particularly on Bengaluru-related issues. Indeed, he failed to comprehend anti-incumbency against his style of governance.
Voters did not approve of his particular fondness for DK Shivakumar, his ministerial colleague. His son-in-law, VG Siddharth, was the founder of Cafe Coffee Day. His company’s explosive expansion in a short span of time was the source of many rumours.
Post Siddharth’s suicide, his son became the son-in-law of DK Shivakumar, who is now the deputy chief minister.
Putting aside the criticism, Krishna should be commended for implementing many structural improvements in Karnataka. He launched the Bhoomi project, which resulted in the digitisation of land records.
He should also be credited for empowering women through the Stree Shakti programme.
Krishna created a large, quiet microloan system across the state. The midday meal scheme for government schoolchildren, launched by him, is still going on strongly in the state. Further, he deserved to be appreciated for Bengaluru’s self-assessment of the property tax system.
Moreover, he never shied away from giving impetus to the growth of Bengaluru. Top Information Technology (IT) and Biotechnology (BT) captains were first seen walking through Vidhana Soudha’s corridors while they were a part of his Bangalore Agenda Task Force, whose responsibility was to advise civic agencies on infrastructure development in the IT corridors.
He hit the headlines when he said Bengaluru would become another Singapore. Most likely, he was talking aloud about his dreams.
It is not that Krishna was a ham-handed person but his planning of Vikasa Soudha next to the magnificent Vidhana Soudha was nothing to be proud of.
Probably, he was the only chief minister who faced a plethora of serious problems, including the kidnapping of matinee idol Rajkumar by brigand Veerappan. He could somehow get the star out of the bounds of the kidnapper in 2000. But he failed to secure former minister Dr H Nagappa from Veerappan.
Probably, he could have performed better regarding the hydrological drought. He was under tremendous pressure to release the Cauvery River water to Tamil Nadu as per the Supreme Court diktat.
His statement during the crisis period was, “If there is water, I will release. Otherwise, I will take a padayatra from Bengaluru to Mysuru to explain the hardship to the people.” He did too much to the displeasure of Sonia Gandhi. Finally, the rains came to his rescue.
His regime was also marked by major scams. One was the illegal diversion of 17,000 tons of rice meant for drought-hit areas to open the market. A CID probe was ordered, but no high and mighty was punished. Probably he could have contributed better during the severe drought for three consecutive years.
Some of the officers who worked with Krishna have good words for him. HB Dinesh was the deputy director of the information department and media coordinator while Krishna was the chief minister.
“Krishna was a perfectionist. He used to think deeply before making any major decisions. His plans were futuristic. He faced the worst time during the kidnapping of Rajkumar. His commitment to Bengaluru was immense,” Dinesh said.
IAS officer Dr Mamatha BR was a special officer to chief minister Krishna. She handled public grievances. She fondly recalls Krishna’s love for reading books.
“He was a gentleman politician with a refined taste. Under his leadership, we introduced the Mukhyavahini portal, where data about Union government funds to Karnataka and other information used to be uploaded. The portal was the first of its kind in India.”
Mamatha recalled how Krishna dissuaded people from coming to his office in Bengaluru with grievances. Instead, he had put in a sound grievance redress system where every problem used to be attended to and feedback given to the person concerned.
“He was the first to introduce the video conferencing method to keep in touch with deputy commissioners. His monumental contribution is not just introducing the Bhoomi but also the Cauvery 1 project, which facilitates the online submission of records for land registrations,” she pointed out.
When his son-in-law, Siddharth, committed suicide over business losses, Krishna never expressed his emotions in public. He chose not to speak about the tragedy. That was Krishna.
Krishna will be remembered in Karnataka history as a leader who upheld civility in public life, a rare quality in contemporary politics.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
