16 November,2009 07:44 AM IST | | DP Satish
Needled and cornered by the Bellary mining lords, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa was a nervous wreck as he waited for BJP's Delhi leaders to defuse the crisis. DP Satish, the only journalist around, records for MiD DAY what really happened behind the scenes the day he broke down before a TV camera
It is cold as I arrive at Karnataka Bhavan, located in the vicinity of several foreign embassies. "Sir, please go in. The CM is expecting you," says his assistant. I enter BS Yeddyurappa's modest room on the third floor. He is sitting on a sofa. I greet him. He asks me to take a chair.
We silently drink coffee. He gets up and asks me to accompany him. We walk towards the high security British and Australian High Commissions. I follow Yeddyurappa. We reach the embassy of Norway. He asks me what language the people of Norway speak. Norwegian, I reply. I tell him about the plays of Henrik Ibsen. I also tell him that his favourite Kannada poet M Gopalakrishna Adiga has translated Ibsen's 'The Enemy of the People' into Kannada. A thin smile appears on his grim face.
We sit on a stone bench in front of the embassy. I try to joke that he needs the mediation of Norway to sort out his differences with the Reddys! After all, Norway is good at getting warring parities to come to the negotiating table.
"I wanted to go to Rajghat late last night and sit there the whole night. But I controlled myself fearing that people might think I have gone mad. What a great soul Gandhi was! Why are we fighting like this?"
Yeddyurappa says in a halting, choked voice.
"Sir, your mentors in the RSS don't like Gandhi. Praising Gandhi so openly may embarrass them and land you in fresh trouble," I say.
He just smiles and starts to walk back towards Karnataka Bhavan. He tells me Kuvempu's song 'Negila yogiya nodalli' (Look, there goes the yogi with the plough) brings tears to his eyes every time he listens to it. I tell him his foe HD Deve Gowda also sheds tears for farmers! He looks up, but says nothing.
8 am, Chief Minister's room
Yeddyurappa, Karnataka's Delhi representative V Dhananjayakumar, and I sit across a breakfast table. Hot idli, vada and dosa arrive. We eat in silence. A camera crew from a Kannada TV news channel enters. The CM agrees to talk. After the third or fourth question, he breaks down. Tears well up in his eyes.
I am taken aback. Dhananjayakumar also breaks down and wipes his tears with a handkerchief. Yeddyurappa's right hand man Lehar Singh and his advisor K Diwakar also start crying. I am the only one not shedding tears.
Very embarrassing. I look around blankly. Finally, the interview ends and the crew leaves.
We start eating again. Yeddyurappa says, "Satish, you know me well. You are from my place. I was just a Shimoga district leader 25 years ago. I never dreamt that one day I would be the CM. But power has not given me peace and happiness. Sometimes, I feel I would have been a happy man if I had not entered politics."
He talks as if in a trance: "This doesn't have an exit door. Once you enter, you have to fight. Otherwise, you will be devoured. Even if I cry, even if I help a needy man, people say it is all a drama. Don't we have the right to cry? Are not we human beings first?"
I just nod. A couple of cabinet colleagues call him up. He speaks in a whimper. He is no longer the serious-looking Yeddyurappa I have known for 25 years. I first met him when I was 7 years old.
We finish breakfast. After ten minutes, Yeddyurappa leaves for the airport to catch a special flight to Vaishnodevi.
(The author is News Editor, CNN-IBN)
