Bengaluru: Opposition BJP in Karnataka is doing to the govt what it has long accused Congress of doing in Parliament, using disruption as a weapon to force an unwilling administration to confront a politically damaging issue.The trigger is the re-induction of B Nagendra as planning and statistics minister, a move that has turned the assembly and council into theatres of protest, sloganeering and repeated adjournments. Legislators across parties admit the standoff has broken the usual pattern of protest.“There have been instances of disruptions and even day and night dharnas, but such protests used to be withdrawn in two or three days,” said some old-time legislators. “This time, BJP is hell bent on continuing disruptions in the House at the cost of important discussions including on drought.”The opposition’s calculus is simple: If the govt will not concede, it will make the House unworkable. The tactic mirrors what Congress did in the monsoon session of Parliament, where protests over alleged police excesses at Jantar Mantar against students repeatedly stalled proceedings.On Aug 3, the Lok Sabha was adjourned more than once after opposition MPs raised slogans demanding Union home minister Amit Shah’s presence. Prior to that, another pressure campaign claimed the scalp of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.The parallel between the two capitals is hard to miss. Congress has justified disrupting Parliament as the only way to make the govt engage with issues it would rather avoid. In Bengaluru, BJP is making an identical case, arguing that Nagendra’s return to the cabinet rules out normal business.BJP and JD(S) members disrupted assembly and council proceedings for the first five days of session, wearing black armbands and t-shirts, waving placards and shouting slogans. They intend to keep up the pressure when the session resumes Monday.Opposition leader R Ashoka has warned that his party will keep the legislature from functioning until Nagendra is dropped from the cabinet, tying the demand to larger questions of accountability in how the govt has handled the row.When Congress members turned the charge around, accusing BJP of disrupting the House over other pressing matters, Ashoka hit back accusing Lok Sabha opposition leader Rahul Gandhi of doing much the same thing in Parliament.Political analyst Vishwas Shetty called it a case of roles reversing. “When in the opposition, parties use disruption to put the govt on the defensive and keep an issue alive, but condemn the same tactic when in govt,” he said.He believes the standoff points to a deeper shift in the state’s politics. “BJP’s campaign shows Karnataka politics entering a tit for tat phase. The immediate issue is Nagendra, but the larger battle is over controlling the political narrative and preventing an uninterrupted session,” Shetty said.
