Channapatna voters ignore, ‘Ab tera kya hoga, Kaaliya’

  •   Sat, Nov 23 2024
  •   By Gabriel Vaz

November 23, 2024

Who hasn’t heard Amjad Khan’s famous Gabbar Singh dialogue. In the 1975 Hindi blockbuster, Sholay, asking his trusted dacoit henchman Kaaliya played by Viju Khote, “Ab tera kya hoga?” or “Kitne aadmi the?”

Well, we all know that the dreaded bandit Gabbar Singh, shoots Kaaliya after firing a blank shot as a punishment for cowardice in returning empty-handed without capturing Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra). Of course, Kaaliya’s plea for mercy, “Maine aapka namak khaaya, Sardar,” goes in vain as Gabbar Singh roars saying, “Jo dar gaya, samjo mar gaya!”

Nearly 50 years after the box office hit film, shot in the rocky terrain of Ramanagara off Bengaluru for about two and half years from 1973, the word Kaaliya reverberated ironically in the Ramanagara district’s Channapatna assembly constituency by-election, when Karnataka’s Wakf and Minority Welfare Minister Z A Zameer Ahmed Khan, attacked his one-time bosom buddy and JDS leader, the present Union Heavy Industries Minister H D Kumaraswamy by saying, ”Kaaliya Kumaraswamy is more dangerous than BJP.”

Zameer Ahmed Khan’s racist remarks against the JDS leader turned out to be a big controversy with JDS and BJP leaders pouncing on the offending minister for abusing Kumaraswamy by the colour of his skin. After the backlash from his political rivals and public criticism by both Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister as well as KPCC Chief D K Shivakumar Zameer Ahmed Khan was forced to tender a public apology.

Not just Kaaliya but Kulla!

However, the apology was no less stinging with the minister claiming that he had called Kumaraswamy as Kaaliya “out of affection” and further confessed that when he was close to him when he was in JDS, he used to address Kumaraswamy as “Kariya or Kaaliya” and the latter used to refer to him as “Kulla” (dwarf) on his short size. “Kaaliya and Kulla was part of the banter and both of us did not take any offence against each other,” was the explanation offered.

In the heat of the electioneering that saw former Prime Minister and JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda launching a hectic campaign for his grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy for more than a week and Kumaraswamy himself toured the entire Channapatna assembly constituency on behalf of his son from day one.

Incidentally, desperate to ensure a third-time success after his defeat in the 2019 election to the Mandya Lok Sabha seat and again in 2023 from Ramanagara, the seat vacated by his own mother Anita Kumaraswamy, besides roping his own wife Revathy Kumaraswamy. True to the family tradition of shedding tears in public events, Nikhil had also cried.

DKS Brothers vs Gowda Family

The ruling Congress party, which was initially toying the idea of fielding Shivakumar or his brother D K Suresh, who had lost in his own Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency to Kumaraswamy’s cardiologist brother in law Dr C N Manjunath, who contested on BJP symbol, finally got BJP MLC and former minister C P Yogeshwar to quit the saffron party and contest as the Congress candidate.

With the entire Deve Gowda family to almost all State BJP leaders from Lingayat strongman and former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and his son, State BJP President B Y Vijayendra to BJP opposition leader in the Assembly R Ashok and former BJP Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Manjunath (both of whom are Vokkaligas), working ceaselessly for the success of the NDA candidate, a section of the media went to the extent of projecting a photo-finish and even victory for Nikhil Kumaraswamy.

The racist and ill-advised “Kaaliya” barbs from Zameer Ahmed Khan against Kumaraswamy’s dark skin colour was thought to be the last straw that might tilt the scales in favour of Nikhil Kumaraswamy as the remarks were considered offensive and insulting to the generally dark skinned Vokkaliga community as their main occupation is agriculture given the fact that Vokkaligas are a dominant community in the constituency in Old Mysuru region.

In the event of Nikhil Kumaraswamy’s victory against five-time winner Yogeshwar, who has won on different party symbols and even as an independent, Zameer Ahmed Khan would have been the obvious villain. The voters of Channapatna, famous as a town of toy-makers, evidently felt otherwise and backed the Siddaramaiah-DKS brothers to ensure C P Yogeshwar’s triumph!

 

 

 
By Gabriel Vaz
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Title: Channapatna voters ignore, ‘Ab tera kya hoga, Kaaliya’



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