V Sreenivas Prasad: End of a Dissent Dalit Voice

Bengaluru: Venkataiah Srinivas Prasad’s passing away looks like paving the way for an end of dissent Dalit voice in public life and more so in the politics of Karnataka. His passing away was neither sudden nor unexpected as his ill health was well-known to all those known to him. It’s a real big surprise that he could brave all odds on the health front so far despite being on dialysis daily for years.

Eternal dissent in a way: Like true socialists’ he lived being an eternal dissent since the beginning of his public life and later forever, whether in or out of being in power positions. On the other hand, he refused to budge or compromise on his stance other than kicking out the power positions. Only a few years back, he resigned as a revenue minister following differences with Siddaramaiah, then the chief minister. He could have easily remained a minister until the end of the tenure, but he was the last person to even think so.

Golden jubilee in politics: A resident of the royal Mysuru city, he was born to DV Puttamma and M Venkataiah couple on 06 July 1947. To begin with, he was a volunteer of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) from childhood and until 1972. Later he became active with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS). After completing fifty memorable years in public-party political life he bid adieu to the same at a public function only a month back in Mysuru.

Minister in Vajpayee government: V Srinivas Prasad served as a minister in the third regime of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the prime minister from 1999 to 2004. He also became a revenue minister in the Congress party government in the state between 2013 and 2016. Following a continued feud with Siddaramaiah, he quit the party to join the BJP later and was elected from the Chamarajanagar Lok Sabha reserved constituency in the 2019 general elections.

In poll fray 14 times: He contested in 14 elections, nine times to the Parliament and five times to the state Assembly and was successful six times to the Parliament and twice to the state Assembly. His first electoral victory was as an Independent MLA from Krishnaraja in 1974 and later he joined the Indian National Congress (INC), defected to the Janata Party, Janata Dal (United), returned to the Congress and returned to the BJP.

-Manohar Yadavatti

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