Politics in Karnataka could be the script for a fine Yakshagana performance. The angst of a wronged father confronting a wayward son who threatens to squander a carefully constructed political legacy, has mythological resonances that will long echo through the capacious corridors of Bangalore's Vidhana Soudha. H.D. Deve Gowda knows well the price the Janata Dal — which flags the word 'secular' as part of its nomenclature — will have to pay for son H.D. Kumaraswamy's pact with the BJP. He sees it for what it is: political suicide.

The BJP's ascent to governance in Karnataka — if things go according to plan — will see the emergence of a bipolar polity in the state. It will also mean an end to the Janata Dal, as we know it, 12 short years after its big moment when various factions led by strongmen H.D. Deve Gowda, S.R. Bommai and R.K. Hedge fought elections together and gave the state its first non-Congress government. For the BJP, breaking the south-of-the-Vindhyas barrier will come as a major psychological boost — the culmination of 16 years of concerted labour.

While covering the 1991 General Election in the state, I could distinctly discern the saffron tint in the air. The Congress, which ...

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