BJP’s Karnataka Manifesto Seeks To Erase Party’s Hindi Belt Image, Grow Kannada Roots

The release of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Karnataka election manifesto (Namma Karnatakakke Namma Vachana) is significant not for the elaborate and costly freebies it offers the voter, but for what it says about the party’s evolution from its moorings in Hindi heartland politics. If carried to its logical conclusion all over India, it will mark a turning point in how the party sees itself. It is transitioning into a national party with a strong regional heart. Its new mantra: Think National, Act Regional.

You can find as many bad economic ideas as good ones in the manifesto, including the promise of another farm loan waiver of up to Rs 1 lakh per farmer and a similar one for weavers, free laptops for college students, free smartphones and sanitary napkins for poor (below poverty line) women and at Re 1 for the rest, free college education for all students (except for vocational courses), and free 3g of gold “thalis” and Rs 25,000 for poor women who get married. How the state is going to finance these freebies, of which one has listed only a few, is unclear. But freebies have now become the norm in all states, and Karnataka will beggar its neighbours under a BJP government, if elected.

The good ideas include the creation of a state business law reforms commission to improve ease of doing business, building six-lane highways to connect all districts in the state, building six start-up hubs, a Rs 10,000 crore scheme to fund women-run cooperatives, legislating a new law to cater to the capital city’s unique needs, doubling the number of buses for city commutes, building the airport metro link (already in the works), extending e-procurement for eliminating corruption in government contracts, and providing three-phase power supply to farmers for 10 hours daily, among other things. Another good idea is the creation of a Rs 5,000 crore price stabilisation fund (called “Raitha Bandhu Market Intervention Fund”) to support farmers when prices crash.

In one line, the bad ideas and freebie culture that the manifesto takes forward are overwhelming, and the good ideas underwhelming.

But where the manifesto breaks from the mundane is its regional tonality. Perhaps, this is a response to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s efforts to paint himself as a Kannada warrior keeping the Hindi-wallahs at bay, but the BJP has gone farther than at any time in the past to erase its Hindi belt image and strike a deeper emotional chord in Karnataka. Quite clearly, this could be the future template for the BJP to extend its reach south of the Vindhyas. But all this is being done without giving up on subtle signalling to its core Hindu base. Smart.

The manifesto offers adequate emphasis to Kannada language and its popularisation, while also subtly rebranding national schemes to give them a regional flavour, whether it is schemes for women’s empowerment, farmers, urban and rural poor, and public health, or the use of local icons in the naming of new projects. Even more interesting, many of the schemes attempt to drill deeper and address sub-regional themes. And one cannot miss the subtle Hindu subtext in some parts of the manifesto.

1. Hindi chauvinism takes a backseat, and Kannada pride comes into prominence: Key new initiatives include the creation of an introductory subject in Kannada in all universities to “help non-Kannada-speaking students assimilate into society faster”, encouraging other states to offer Kannada as a second or third language choice, and free online courses for anyone to learn Kannada through other Indian languages, among others. Way to go. These kinds of approaches are what Indian languages need to grow and prosper instead of using local linguistic chauvinism to demonise Hindi.

2. Hyper local schemes: The manifesto seems to have gone deeper into sub-regional aspirations. Karnataka is an amalgam of six sub-regions, some of whose parts belonged to other regions during British Raj, including parts now called Mumbai-Karnataka (north-west), Hyderabad-Karnataka (part of the erstwhile Nizam’s domain (north-east), Old Mysuru, coastal Karnataka, Central Karnataka, and Greater Bengaluru city. The districts and smaller communities left out in earlier rounds of development have been brought in for a special mention: among them, separate development corporations for Tigala, Savita Samaja, Idiga, Billava, and Yadava communities, an OBC (Other Backward Classes) fund to incentivise traditional occupations and professions, the establishment of 60 business process outsourcing complexes, and 15 micro, small, and medium enterprises development centres across the state, operationalising the Bidar investment and manufacturing zone, etc.

3. Sensible local rebranding of national schemes: The Centre’s Sagarmala scheme becomes the Karnataka Mala scheme to connect all districts, including coastal ones; the creation of a Karnataka model of high-quality state hospitals-styled Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (on the lines of the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences); Modicare’s Ayushman Bharat and the Sujalam Suphalam irrigation schemes become Ayushman Karnataka and Sujalam Suphalam Karnataka Yojane, the last getting an allocation of Rs 1.5 lakh crore. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana remains as it is, but there is a special state-focused scheme to build houses for the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe community, titled Madakari Nayaka Housing Scheme. The Saubhagya scheme to deliver power to every household is not renamed; after all, it makes no sense to deny Prime Minister Narendra Modi his dues when he is key to winning the Karnataka election this time around.

4. High use of local icons for naming schemes: There is a Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Gnana Yojane to build 70 new high-quality government colleges at a cost of Rs 3,000 crore, a Rs 4,500 crore Maharshi Valmiki scholarship scheme for SC/STs (including one named after Dalit icon Babu Jagjivan Ram), a Field Marshal Cariappa Sports University, and a M Vishweshwaraiah Udyoga Yojane for new employment generation (this one is for you, Rahul Gandhi).

5. Hindu signalling: For those who asked “What is Yogi Adityanath doing here?”, the answer comes indirectly in the form of the “Kittur Rani Chennamma Flying Squads” to ensure women’s safety – which has echoes of the Yogi’s anti-Romeo squads in Uttar Pradesh.

More important is the promise that temple revenue will be “used only and fully for expenditure on temples and related religious activities”. While this is a step forward since temple donations have in the past been used to fund mosque and church activities, it is still far short of the demand among Hindus that the state must get out of running temples and hand these properties to groups of devotees.

Of course, there are no answers on where the state will find the funds to bankroll all its promises, but at least in intent, the BJP is moving away from its Hindi belt orientation.

To be sure, this process began with the North East, where the BJP took up local issues and concerns, reaping a rich harvest of seats not only in Assam, but Tripura too.

Now, with this manifesto, the BJP is finally staking a claim as a party that is willing to grow independent roots in the south.