l October 1990. Chief Minister Veerendra Patil’s abrupt and humiliating dismissal by the leaders of his own party brought cheer to head honchos of liquor companies because this able administrator had them by their jugular and snapped the main source of untaxed revenues. In the year that he was in office after leading the Congress to a record victory (179 of 224 seats), he did not pay heed to party hila denge threats of this lobby and ordered the administration to track every crate of ‘seconds’, an euphemism for non-duty liquor as well as those that were being sold in the state though the companies claimed tax rebates for exporting booze to neighbouring states. Some of his party colleagues, with links with the liquor lobby, engineered his fall at a time when Mr Patil had suffered a stroke and could not see through the Machiavellian ploys of this lobby.
l October 2010. Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, also a Lingayat like the late Mr Veerendra Patil, almost lost his chair as a similar plot unfolded with some of his party colleagues forging an unholy alliance with mine lords on one hand and power-hungry Opposition leaders eager to grab power through dubious means. The mine lords were definitely miffed as their revenues dwindled because of a ban on exports of iron ore and raids on many illegal mines.
Ironically, he managed to pull through because another faction of the same lobby backed him to the hilt and offset the threat to his position. That Karnataka’s legislators have turned ‘tradable commodities’ for powerful lobbies has become painfully evident and has evoked revulsion. Says Jnanpeeth laureate Prof U.R. Ananthamurthy, “I see that a lot of money is being used to stabilise and destabilise the state government and that this kind of money was never at play in the past. Chief Minister Yeddyurappa should have dissolved the Assembly and sought a fresh mandate after such a farce that everyone witnessed last week.”
Former chief justice of India, Justice M.N. Venkatachalaiah concurred, adding, “We have not seen anything like this in the past. I wonder what Income Tax officers are doing when money is changing hands and playing havoc in a democratic setup.”
An expensive price the Congress paid for the unceremonious ouster of Mr Veerendra Patil has been the en mass migration of Lingayat voters to BJP. This numerically strong community has not forgiven Congressmen for the manner in which their leader was jettisoned in 1990.
Will Mr Yeddyurappa’s detractors repeat the same political blunder and pay a price in the future?
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Neena Gopal
The best laid plans of mice and men…The Karnataka crisis with its many twists and turns, that threatened to derail B S Yeddyurappa’s 29 month old government is a story that could rival any conspiracy that bedevilled the all powerful kings of our epics.
But while B.S. Yeddyurappa has outed his sixteen-headed Ravana this Dasara, how long can he keep these forces at bay? Are the whispers true? Will the powers that be in the party’s upper echelons push for a change and pick another leader from among the power hungry saffron flock who share BSY’s vote-winning Lingayat lineage?
Certainly the message that has gone out from the Congress at the centre is clear. This political Governor who over-played his hand will not be backed. This is a Congress that will not be weighed down by the baggage of another era when governments toppled like nine-pins. This Congress, unmoved by the frenzy that characterized its state unit, is a vastly different creature. Mindful that elections in Bihar are coming, and that every hand is needed on deck, it cannot suffer the embarrassment of a BJP accusing it of coming to power through the back-door. Yes, it’s never fazed the Janata Dal (S) before.
There’s one other inescapable truth — despite the back to back trust votes, this is a vastly diminished state BJP. And the crunch will come six months from now when the 16 men who thought they could hold a government to ransom while they bargained for cabinet berths, and then lost it all in the final throw of the dice, will press forward once more when its time for the inevitable by-polls.
That’s when the Janata Dal (S) father-son duo will have little choice but to own up to trying to pull the rug from under BSY’s feet. Will they field the sixteen as their own? After all, some say the bill for this particular shopping spree is said to have cost ` 720 crores! And counting…
A government on thin ice. A restive opposition that can smell blood. A state that is in perpetual turmoil. But a state nevertheless that is the sole saffron island in the south, a state that could — with its newfound money and caste power — impact on districts in AP and Tamil Nadu that abut Karnataka. It’s the BJP’s Trojan horse in the south. And the power brokers in Delhi know this all too well.
No wonder this particular resident of Raj Bhavan has thrown all his cards on the table. Face up..