Perhaps, half a century of his journey in active politics prompted the External Affairs Minister S M Krishna to predict that history would repeat itself to ensure a bright future for his party in Karnataka.
At the ‘Join Congress, Usher in Change’ rally held here on Wednesday, the veteran Congressman went down the memory lane and drew a graph. He recalled his mid-career experience of the late 80s and early 90s where the Congress had played a musical chair of changing the chief ministers swiftly.
Starting from the imposition of the President’s rule in 1989 which ousted S R Bommai, the Congress had played his cards by changing Veerendra Patil (1990), S Bangarappa (1992) and M Veerappa Moily (1994) within a span of five years.
Referring indirectly to the eventualities, Krishna admitted that he too was a party to the mistakes the party had committed between 1989-92. However he was quick to add that “but it was not just because of me”. “We had lost credibility as we ignored people’s mandate, which resulted in the party’s debacle in 1994 Assembly elections,” he stated while deliberately drawing a parallel with the incumbent BJP government which saw three chief ministers since 2008.
He claimed that as the party realised the mistakes it had committed and rectified them, it returned to power in 1999 and delivered a good governance.
For 2004 debacle, he blamed three years of prevailing drought, abduction of Rajkumar and Cauvery water disputes. Later, he observed that the party was forced to join hands with the JD(S) which in turn forced him to be away from the state politics as he was ‘sent’ as Maharashtra governor and later called for the central service as foreign minister.
“Now AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have given me an opportunity to work in the state and ensure party’s victory,” he added.
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