Since last weekend, Karnataka has seen arrows flying between the two top political leaders on the question of what the government’s flagship guarantee schemes have meant for women.
It all began with the Janata Dal (Secular) State president and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s interpretation of how two of the five guarantee schemes targeted at women — free travel in non-luxury government buses and monthly financial support of ₹2,000 for women heads of families — have impacted them. “Today, because the government has announced the five guarantee schemes during the last elections, our mothers in villages have gone astray. They have to think about what happens to their lives. You should think about what happens to your family...” he said.
This drew widespread condemnation from the Congress leaders, with the Deputy Chief Minister and the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee D.K. Shivakumar leading from the front. Since then, the repartee between them has gone beyond just a debate on the schemes and got enmeshed in their ongoing bitter battle for Vokkaliga (the politically powerful caste to which both belong) leadership, assuming the character of alpha males sparring for territorial control.
