Guess who inspired ‘Mr. Straightforward’ to join politics. By his own revelation, it was the legendary farmers’ leader, M.D. Nanjundaswamy.
“Prof. Nanjundaswamy inspired me to enter politics, leaving the legal profession,” Siddaramaiah had said at the 75th birth anniversary celebrations of the late farmers’ leader in Bangalore in February 2010.
No wonder then that Mr. Siddaramaiah has imbibed his mentor’s quality of not allowing bureaucrats to dominate politicians at his meetings and his signature style of putting high-profile bureaucrats in their place in public.
He had recalled how the forward-looking Nanjundaswamy, who used to teach law in Mysore, would try to influence students like him with his socialist thoughts and motivate them to fight corruption and injustice.
“But I was beaten up by the police whenever I followed the professor’s advice to stage protests against the then Congress government.”
Interestingly, Mr. Siddaramaiah, who began his political career opposing the policies of the Congress and its dynastic rule, has now ended up as one of its leading lights in the State.
Though the professor was responsible for his political baptism, Mr. Siddaramaiah playfully blamed him for his first poll debacle.
“When I told Prof. Nanjundaswamy that I am contesting the elections, he gave me his Plymouth for the campaign as I did not have a four-wheeler then. This turned out to be a big mistake as I ended up spending all the money I had mobilised on that fuel guzzler. In fact, getting fuel for the car became a bigger challenge than winning the election. We had a very small budget then.”
It is Mr. Siddaramaiah’s association with the founder of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha that has fired the hopes of the State’s farmers.
Experts feel he must initiate concrete reforms and changes that can help the agriculture sector, which is reeling under a crisis. Crash in prices of crops, lack of remunerative prices and official apathy have taken their toll on the sector.
