Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, in a recent tweet, mocked the BJP’s reliance on “north Indian imports” for the election campaign, and compared himself to the Chalukya king Pulikeshi, who stopped the march of Emperor Harshavardhana from the north in the 7th century.
Karnataka has never been ruled by a party that defines itself in terms of linguistic or regional identity, unlike in some neighbouring States, but now, the Chief Minister, who is from a national party, is sparing no opportunity to underline issues of State identity and federalism.
He has been doing so on multiple fronts — pushing for a State flag, fighting “imposition” of Hindi, opposing the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission that are “unfair” to southern States such as Karnataka and so on.
Some political observers view Mr. Siddaramaiah’s move of combining regional identity, Kannada pride and federalism into the Congress’s election plank as a master ploy to counter the BJP’s Hindutva-nationalism narrative.
In June 2017, he constituted an expert committee to recommend if Karnataka should have a State flag. Coinciding with the announcement of the election calendar, the State Cabinet approved the recommendation to have a State flag as an emblem of regional identity.
Mr. Siddaramaiah, who started his political career as the head of the Kannada Kavalu Samiti (Kannada Surveillance Committee) in the 1980s and is now projecting himself as a champion of Kannada pride, says the regional sentiment only helps build a strong India.
The BJP too, during its rule from 2008 to 2013 in the State, promoted similar ideas. But the Janata Dal(S), a State-level party, has been silent. BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa has slammed the Chief Minister for taking a unilateral decision on the State flag and “politicising” the issue, while not opposing the idea upfront.
Over the past year, the present and former chairpersons of the Kannada Development Authority have added strength to the “regional pride” arguments of Mr. Siddaramaiah by questioning the imposition of Hindi in Kannada heartland. There have been protests against not allowing Kannada as an optional language in banking recruitment tests and Hindi signage in metro trains.
Lingayat status
According the status of a separate religion and the minority tag to the Lingayat community is being viewed as part of the regional identity plan.
The highlight here is on the native origin of Lingayatism, which was founded in the present-day Hyderabad-Karnataka region by the 12th century saint-reformer Basavanna.
Literary figures and Kannada activists form one support base of Mr. Siddaramaiah’s strategy. In his presidential address at the Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in Mysuru in November, Chandrashekhar Patil, writer, urged people to support a “secular party”. Litterateur K. Marulasiddappa, president of the Kuvempu Bhasha Bharati Prathishtana, says neither the BJP nor its president Amit Shah has supported pro-Kannada issues. He is among the Kannada writers to have openly expressed support for the Congress “in the interest of preserving secularism and democracy”.
M.S. Sriram, Visiting Professor, Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, says the BJP’s narrative that any devolution of funds to the States is the Centre’s “largesse” is only adding to heightened regional sentiment.
But now, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Shah are tweeting in Kannada and visiting memorials of Kannada poets.
Kuvempu’s ideals
S.G. Siddaramaiah, writer and Chairman of the Kannada Development Authority, questioned Mr. Shah’s visit to Kuvempu’s home and memorial Kavishaila. He said Kuvempu, revered as the State’s poet laureate, believed in universal humanism and abhorred communal or social divisions.
Kannada scholar Chidananda Murthy and Dalit poet Siddalingaiah urged Mr. Shah during meetings to demonstrate his love for Kannada by giving it primacy and allowing it as an optional language in Central recruitment tests.
Political scientist Muzaffar Assadi acknowledges the resonance of regionalism, but says its effect on an election is unpredictable. “It is difficult to negate an undercurrent of cultural identity. However, it is also difficult to quantify it in terms of it getting translated to votes,” he says.
