With tact and a smile, shrewd CM contains crisis

BANGALORE: After sitting for two-and-a-half-hours, scholar M Chidanandamurthy, 83, got up to leave the Conference Hall, Vidhana Soudha, along with fellow writer Sa Shi Marulaiah.
On seeing this, chief minister Siddaramaiah, who was sitting diagonally opposite, smilingly asked him to stay and express his opinion. The veteran scholar obliged. "The entire state is with you, except your governor,'' he told the CM, who couldn't but smile.
Only a few days earlier, defending the support of Jnanpith awardees UR Ananthamurthy and Girish Karnad to his party, Siddaramaiah had remarked: "Chidanandamurthy supports the BJP. Do we object? It's his personal choice.''
Though their ideologies are diametrically opposite, Siddaramaiah's gesture to the right-wing scholar was indeed very shrewd. It wasn't just with Chidanandamurthy. The CM extended the same courtesy to many other senior writers who participated in the four-hour long meeting chaired by him, to discuss the Supreme Court's ruling quashing the mother tongue as the medium of instruction in all primary schools in Karnataka.
As the issue is emotive, Siddaramaiah is playing it safe by allowing litterateurs and activists to speak their mind. In one swift move, he succeeded in gaining their confidence and also showcase his commitment to the cause of Kannada. None of those present criticized the CM or found fault with his approach to the issue. Instead, they expressed confidence in him.
When he first entered the assembly in 1983, then CM Ramakrishna Hegde had appointed Siddaramaiah as chairman of the first Kannada Watchdog Committee. This too is coming to his aid now. At the end of the meeting, the CM declared he had taken their suggestions and would do everything possible to restore Kannada as the medium of instruction in primary schools, pleasing the writers, activists and opposition leaders.
With the same zeal, Siddaramaiah directed bureaucrats to use Kannada in daily administration, warning that he would return official files that aren't in Kannada.
Wearing Kannada on his sleeve, Siddaramaiah is smiling, at least for now.