H.D. Deve Gowda must be the only former prime minister of India to involve himself in the murky politics of gain. The way he played cat-and-mouse with the Bharatiya Janata Party is not unprecedented in the nation’s political sphere but certainly no other former prime minister (and there are quite a few around) has been seen to have acted in a similar fashion. He got his professedly ‘secular’ Janata Dal to enter into an alliance with the ‘communal’ BJP so that his son, H.D. Kumaraswamy, could be the chief minister of Karnataka. Then his party refused to make way for the ally, as per agreement, turned round 180 degrees and then pulled the rug from under the BJP’s feet, which was making a bid to form a government. Result: president’s rule and Karnataka in a crisis again.

Clearly, nobody told Deve Gowda that a former prime minister has to live by certain standards. He cannot be seen to be involved in petty politicking. Or even if he were told so, the former prime minister had decided that he had no time for such niceties. If he cannot be prime minister once again, he will see to it that in his home turf he will be the one to call the shots. How long he will be able to do so is of course uncertain, as at a future date the people of the state may decide to reduce his party to a non-entity. But till that happens, he will rule the roost, never mind how his image suffers.

The BJP also has suffered. A party which claims to go by principles should have withdrawn itself when Deve Gowda refused to honour the agreement and call for fresh elections. But here was its first opportunity to occupy the chief minister’s chair outside the Hindi heartland and it was not prepared to let go of the chance. It thus eagerly got involved in behind-the-scene deals. Now the party should realize that it has been taken for a massive ride and may find that the electorate is as fed up with it as with the other party.

Look North

The gainer may well be the Congress, although that too does not have a shining image. The Congress’s attempt to benefit from the uncertainty, even though it did not have the numbers, was as questionable as the game played by the other two parties. Why was the Congress trying to woo back the Janata Dal (Secular) after being the first to be ditched by it?

The developments in Karnataka indicate that when a coalition fails, the stage is always set for murky deals. For instance, in Karnataka, a party which broke from the original Janata Dal on the issue of secularism associated itself with an outfit devoted to Hindutva.

In the days to come, Deve Gowda may claim that it was his son who was responsible for imposing conditions on the BJP and that as a ‘senior statesman’ he was in no way involved in the mess. That could have been an acceptable plea but for the fact that he is actively involved in his party’s day-to-day activities, and the son could not have kept papa in the dark.

Besides, the tie up with the BJP had been publicly endorsed by Deve Gowda himself. It was he who got his men to agree to allow that party to head the ministry. Having done all this, he could not have been a silent spectator to the subsequent imposition of conditions on the BJP just hours before the chief minister was to take a vote of confidence in the house.

A former prime minister should engage with politics only at a higher level, with issues of national importance and foreign policy. He must distance himself from his own party. This is easier said than done. But Vishwanath Pratap Singh has been able to do this, as did the late Chandra Sekhar. However, neither had any party to lead. Others like Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi or Atal Bihari Vajpayee had, and have, parties to be restored to office. But even then, they maintained a decorum. Deve Gowda obviously sees no reason why he should emulate any northener.