Ramakrishna Hegde at 100: The CM who treated power as a passing phase

Bengaluru: Four decades after Ramakrishna Hegde became Karnataka’s first non-Congress chief minister, friends, admirers and former associates are gathering in Bengaluru on August 29 to mark his 100th birth anniversary — and to celebrate a political life defined as much by his ideas as by his reluctance to embrace the privileges of office.

Hegde’s daughters Mamta and Samta are organising the event with several of their father’s long-time associates. Vice-President CP Radhakrishnan, Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, and Chief Minister DK Shivakumar are expected to speak at Vidhana Soudha.

When Hegde took office in 1983, he summoned his three children and their spouses and laid down a rule that would remain emblematic of his approach to power: stay away from Vidhana Soudha and do not use the office to build influence.


Also read: BJP seeks FIR against Cong's Pawan Khera over 'derogatory remarks' against Amit Shah

“You will all continue your own lives, and none of you will come near Vidhana Soudha or meet any officer,” recalls daughter Mamta Nichani.

Hegde, who also served as the commerce minister in the NDA regime under AB Vajpayee, refused to move his family into the official chief minister’s residence. “This office is not permanent. So, let’s just stay in our own house,” he told his wife Shakuntala. The couple continued to live at Krithika, their home in RMV Extension, until his death in January 2004.

His insistence on keeping political offices separate from family extended to his ministers. Hegde required their immediate personal staff to be drawn neither from their home districts nor their caste groups and insisted that they have an unblemished record.

“Everyone followed this. Each minister was a stalwart, enjoying the CM’s confidence. Difficult to imagine such a thing now,” recalls PN Sreenivasachari, who served as a minister’s private secretary.

A different grammar of power

Hegde’s political instincts often ran ahead of conventional electoral calculations. After the 1984 Lok Sabha elections, his Janata Party won only four seats in Karnataka against Congress party’s 24. Hegde interpreted the result as a verdict on his government and dissolved the Assembly, seeking a fresh mandate.

The gamble paid off. The Janata Party returned with an absolute majority, reinforcing the idea that voters could make sharply different choices in parliamentary and Assembly elections.

“But imagine the guts of the man who had just been elected chief minister the previous year,” says S Suresh Kumar, then a young municipal councillor. “That he took this call shows his deep faith in his governance model.”

Suresh Kumar also credits Hegde with shaping his own political career by holding Bangalore City Corporation elections in 1983. He had earlier encountered Hegde during the Emergency, when both were lodged in Bengaluru’s Central Jail.

Former minister B Somashekhar recalls a leader who combined political authority with a strong commitment to institutional accountability. “He was sensitive, cultured and a symbol of certain values in public life. He encouraged youth a lot,” he says.

Hegde was also willing to turn scrutiny on his own government. Somashekhar recalls that he did not hesitate to order a Lokayukta probe against his ministerial colleagues when circumstances warranted.

In 1988, Hegde resigned as chief minister amid the telephone-tapping controversy, after it emerged that the state government had authorised interception of the phones of political opponents, Janata Party dissidents, and journalists. Although he maintained that he had no knowledge of surveillance, he stepped down on moral grounds.

Looking beyond election

For his family, however, Hegde’s legacy is less about political episodes than everyday conduct.

Nichani remembers a chief minister who personally answered evening telephone calls with a simple “Hegde”. He loved books and music, would quietly buy tickets for concerts and drive himself there, and occasionally slip away to Koshy’s on St Mark’s Road with a small group of friends.

His political vision, she says, extended well beyond the electoral cycle. Decentralisation and Panchayat Raj were central to his thinking, while he also pushed for green zones and greater attention to women’s safety in Bengaluru. “He always looked 20 years ahead,” Nichani says.