Earlier in the day, people waited dutifully for some four hours for ‘the boy’. The gathering, a couple of thousands strong, sat back in plastic chairs under a huge shamiana that shielded them from the sun that was climbing. They had access to bottles of mineral water and refreshments from an adjoining eatery. And they had music.

Devotional melodies that extolled the virtues of the Gowda clan—which the songs aver is no one-man show. There is the paternal Senior Gowda, once PM, younger son Kumaraswamy, ex-CM, and elder brother Revanna, the key PWD minister in the last cabinet.

Encomiums are evenly attributed. The song writer vouches for the humble farmer family’s credo: Karmanye vadikaraste, ma bhaleshu kathachana… (Do your duty with no thought of reward). Straight out of the Bhagwad Gita, a secular googly bowled at the BJP. Which is a bunch of back stabbers who trampled and tore Divine Gowda’s posters after the last power shift fell through, reminds a speaker.

Amidst much music and still waiting for the boy’s arrival, speeches pop up like commercial breaks on FM radio. A surprise speaker is a London-based eye surgeon, Dr Madhusoodan, the son of former MLA Sidhappa. The tall, youngish doctor has come ‘all the way’ to his home district to open its eyes to the best choice. The only choice. Perhaps thanks to Googling, he seems to have a far more extended memory than the rest of the speakers, who, apart from a snide one on the hi-tech S.M. Krishna (the rival Gowda), were harping on the recent big brother betrayals. The doctor recalls Rajiv Gandhi’s ‘banana era’. “Yeh banana hai; woh banana hai.” He goes all the way back to Gandhiji’s assassination, the RSS role in it and dismisses BJP’s mandir promise as a “post-dated cheque from a failing political party that is bound to bounce.” He concludes with a flourish, “Test captains like Dravid bring no trophies. It is Kumaraswamy’s T20 team that will win like Dhoni’s.”

... contd.