Known for his dynamism, what also distinguishes Minister for Social Welfare Priyank Kharge is his nature of speaking his mind. Seek his comments on any issue including controversial ones and he will not mince words. You may like him, hate him but you cannot ignore him. Besides his phenomenal rise in politics, it was the outspokenness of Priyank which was targeted by his father’s political opponents in the just concluded Kalaburagi Lok Sabha as well as Chincholi Assembly by-election. Though the Congress suffered defeats in both seats, it has not deterred Priyank from speaking his mind as usual on various factors. His party may have suffered a huge setback, but Priyank is confident of bouncing back. Excerpts from an interview:
What are your comments on the verdict in the Kalaburagi Lok Sabha seat?
We have to accept the peoples’ mandate. This election was not fought on real issues confronting the country such as slowdown of the economy, unemployment, social unrest etc. The bigger issue of nationalism took precedence over all other issues. Nobody had problems either with Mr Mallikarjun Kharge as the Congress candidate or his contributions to the region and state. Somehow the BJP narrative of nationalism and Hindutva took precedence over actual development. After the announcement of the election results, they (Centre) have acknowledged the data with regard to unemployment. This was not acknowledged before the election. If the government had accepted that there was slowdown in the economy, the outcome would have been different. Naturally they (BJP) could not have blamed Pandit Nehru for this.
But at a national level election, nationalism and security are major issues....
No no, I’m not denying that. But even now, nobody knows what happened in Balakot.When so many soliders are killed it’s an issue but how come there is no clarity on it? Somehow seeking clarity is being construed as anti-nationalism; that’s the problem. How come economic slowdown, unemployment and unrest in society are not issues...these are also issues.
You also tried to your best to whip up emotions in the name of the Constitution saying the BJP was out to change it. Though what Ananthkumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada MP) had said on the issue was his personal opinion, you tried to portray it as the main agenda of BJP.
That was the most threatening issue. As you rightly pointed out, it was not some ordinary BJP worker who uttered this, a Union Minister said this. There are also UP Ministers who said this. And the PM did not speak a word denying this...what should people see this as?
In this election, there was also a raging debate on the contributions of Mr Mallikarjun Kharge in so far as economic development of the region is concerned. His political opponents pointed out that though Mr Kharge has been in power for over five decades without a break he has not paid attention to the development of agriculture and irrigation in the area and has brought no major industries which could have generated employment. The large scale migration of people from Gurmitkal is an indication of the kind of development he has achieved....
One thing has to be clear, you cannot hold Mr Kharge responsible for everything that has gone wrong in this area. And you do not praise him for the good work he has done. For example he was MP for only ten years, how can he be held responsible for problems in the entire HK region or Kalaburagi district? And during his 10 years he ensured that many rail and road projects, ESI Hospital and the Central University came to the region. Haven’t they generated employment? Hasn’t the enactment of Article 371(J) created employment?
Apart from these ten years as MP, Mr Kharge won elections without a break 11 times..
I’m not denying that... everytime he was a minister he left his own imprint. When he was cooperative minister, he enabled the deprived sections to get access to cooperatives, when he was the Home Minister he created biggest promotional opportunities for all from head constables to sub inspectors...
I’m not questioning his contributions...I’m only pointing to his contribution to generating employment opportunities..
His initiatives had created employment opportunities like the filling of backlog posts, setting up of an ESI hospital, railway factory and some cement factories.
To what extent did the joining together of leaders like Malikayya Guttedar, Baburao Chinchansur and Dr Maalakaraddi led to the defeat of Mr Kharge? Did you err in assessing their capability?
It’s not local issues...it’s the Modi factor which resulted in the defeat.
The Congress was perceived to be largely anti-Hindu and pro-minority and Dalit. In the light of this poll outcome do you think there is a need for the Congress to reorient its ideology?
It’s wrong..our ideology is clear it’s inclusive. We cater to every section of society.. Unfortunately we cater to such huge sections of society that our narrative gets diluted, while the BJP is for specific communities.
Why did this ideology fail to cut ice with voters? If you look at the voting percentage of BJP in this election, there is a paradigm shift of BCs... In the Kalaburagi LS seat, major BCs such as Kolis who were your backbone once, largely supported BJP.
There is no denying that we have lost a battle, that doesn’t mean they have won the war. They are peddling mythology, lies as truth. The problem is they have a stronger media and social media presence and people are falling for it.
Maybe you are not effective in putting across your point of view...
May be right... nammadu aachara, vichara ide aadare prachara illa...they have a very strong presence in the print and electronic media and also social media such as whatsapp, facebook, instagrams etc which they have built over the years..we are lagging behind and now we are building them.
Coming to Kalaburagi, the Kolis were all along the backbone of Mr Kharge, especially in Gurmitkal.. but this time they largely deserted him.
When we analysed the results we realised that we have fared badly in some constituencies due to the major shift of some communities. But it doesn’t mean that they have deserted us completely. I beg to differ from you that they left us due to local issues. The local leaders that you mentioned lack the credibility that Mr Kharge has.
Some leaders targeted you in the election and tried to portray you as a villain. Was it due to jealousy?
I wouldn’t say jealousy. There was nothing that they could do to target my father, so the only soft target they had was me. So they got down to personal issues- he is arrogant, doesn’t respect elders. It was alleged we own properties worth over Rs 50,000 cr. Now that the elections are over, an inquiry can be conducted.
In the light of this result, you think there is a need to widen your base as dependence on one or two communities won’t help much.
In his entire career, he (Kharge) has never depended on one or two communities, he has acknowledged the need of all communities. We are not out of the game and we will bounce back.
