tathaastu says Offstumped
Karnataka power transfer drama got a fresh twist on Thursday. Chief Minister Kumaraswamy has now said that if the situation continues he will break his promise to the BJP and face elections. The new twist comes after he called a cabinet meeting for Friday morning 9:30am though 17 BJP ministers had already tendered their resignation from the cabinet to force transfer of power according to the agreement reached with Yeduriyappa in 2006.
Meanwhile Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa of BJP was in Delhi along with state party chief D.V. Sadananda Gowda to attend the party’s parliamentary board meeting Thursday. Deve Gowda was camping in Delhi and was scheduled to meet Rajnath Singh on saturday morning.
The sequence of events in Karnataka and Delhi on the face of it are not making much sense. But then when it comes to all matters suffering the dark shadow of Deve Gowda one must look beyond the obvious.CNN-IBN ran a story on how many JD-S MLAs were keen on transfer of power to BJP and reluctant to impose a mid-term poll.
It is clear the father-son duo acting in tandem are upping the ante to drive a hard bargain in the face of doubts and anxieties within their camp. While their public pronouncements have been about the campaign being run by leaders of the Bellary Unit of the BJP against HDK it must be noted that this pow-wow with MLC Janardhana Reddy has been ongoing for a long time now. While it makes for a convenient excuse to draw some sympathy while appearing to put the BJP on the dock, the real issue is what is not being referred to in public.
The issue goes back to Deve Gowda’s shennanigans against Infrastructure Development in and around Bangalore, the NICE project and its chief promoter Ashok Kheny. For those who may have forgotten how vengeful Gowda can get, remember how he got Hedge expelled from the Janata Dal the day after he accepted being the United Front’s candidate for Prime Minister back in 1990s. This is a high stakes game for Gowda with his many real estate interests and hence this stand-off.
On October 1st in a development that receieved scant attention in the media The Karnataka Government moved the Supreme Court seeking permission to cancel the agreement entered into with Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) for the implementation of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project. The rationale provided is amazing – “eminent domain”
world over governments exercise the rights of eminent domain for public benefit and exercise the contractual rights in a manner that would bring maximum benefits to the State. It said there were several precedents where the project sought to be implemented by private agencies were either re-structured, cancelled or implemented through other agencies if either the change in circumstances make the project onerous to the State or in view of certain advanced technology or other such beneficial changes the projects had lost their attractiveness in the existing form
This move by the JD-S follows the SC staying the BMIC fresh Tender Process on Sept 26th an event Ashok Kheny described as
reiterating his unwavered faith in the nation’s judiciary
another head of Ravana has been chopped off.” The true colours of Gowda and his family have been exposed
Offstumped Bottomline: The BJP must at no cost cut a deal with Gowda. There should be no playing politics with the spirit of free enterprise and Urban Infrastructure Development. If the father son duo are threatening polls, so be it.
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“Chief Minister Kumaraswamy has now said that if the situation continues he will break his promise to the BJP and face elections”
Now this is really strange!
“if the situation continues”… which situation? and who is responsible for this situation? Isnt it Kumaraswamy himself who has not honoured the promise that he gave to BJP 20 months ago of transferring power on 3rd October?
“…he will break his promise to the BJP”…
Hasnt he already done that by not resigning on 3rd Oct?
“…and face elections…”
Isn’t that a given, esp after BJP ministers triggered this by handing over their resignations? Unless, of course, the Congress decides to step in “solely for the honourable objective of keeping communal forces out of power in Karnataka!”
Why doesnt somebody ask Kumaraswamy whether he would have been CM for all these months without the BJP? And what would he have done if he was put in the same situation as the BJP is in now, when a coalition partner reneges on a promise and deadline?
There is nothing strange about what Gowda’s are trying to do in Karnataka! It is strange that BJP had not seen it coming.
All this talk about Gowda’s “dishonoring the commitment” and “breaking his promise” to BJP is pointless. It is not the first time it has faced similar situation like this. BJP should have known better while forming alliances with political parties like JD(Secular) which differ fundamentally in their character and philosophy from the BJP. JD(S) was and will be simply interested in riding on BJP as long as it could.
For BJP, an alliance with a party like Shiv Sena can be sustainable. They should be much more careful in future while picking up alliance partners – and not do so for the sake of quick route short-lived power (or to simply to keep the Congress at bay). This will do more damage to it in the medium to long term.
Surely, such shenanigans should cease to surprise or shock anyone – since they occur with such alarmingly regularity.
But what I cannot understand is why Gowda feels that the elections would benefit his party. For sure, people would realise that, if for the sake of power, the “humble farmer” can renege on this promise, then he can do so even for the multitude of manifesto promises that he is sure to come up with? Or, does he think that his spin doctors would take a leaf from the congress book and successfully portray him as an upholder of “secular” principles in the state and a messiah of the poor and downtrodden?
I agree with ur assessment and hope the BJP learn their lesson and have no further truck with the JD(S). In any case, there is still another round of disgusting politics coming up…tut tut !!
In an alliance where the political partners fundamentally differ in character and philosophy – the best option is to provide support from outside – with a short-to-medium term objective of keeping the main opposition at bay !
Left’s support to Congress-led UPA is one such example – which is why they are able to take the UPA for a ride quite often and get away with critisizing the Govt’s policies. You will rarely see a political partner sharing power with the Govt(like DMK) doing that.
Tactically, Congress may not mind providing an outside support to JD(S) in Karnataka to keep the BJP at bay till the next Assembly polls.
Such disgusting rounds politics is a sad reality of the times ! Some parties play this game better than others. BJP has proved to be a novice in this game so far…
It can take a “moral high ground” and say that it will stay away from all this – and come back to power on its own ! But can it ??
This whole episode has really shown just how low politics can go in India. I find HDK and Gowda’s reasoning behind not transferring power like a stand-up comedy act, each reason just another punchline for us to relish. It is up to the JD(S) to decide what it wants to do. Congress will be swift in in instituting President’s Rule if it sees the opportunity.
Fresh elections do not guarantee anything. The ULB polls are not really an indicator of assembly or LS success, and that is why the party’s MLA’s want this agreement to go through. Gowda and son should just look at Chamundeshwari, where even the BJP’s backing could not help its candidate beat Siddi, and in Ullal, where it registered a miniscule presence against the BJP/Congress fight. Siddi’s departure means JD(S)’s backward groups are likely to drift to the Congress, with only the Vokkaliga bank for the JD(S) to rely on against the BJP’s Lingayat-UC-OBC and the Congress’ Muslim-MBC-Dalit combinations.
So, HDK has this opportunity to try and correct some of the damage done to his political reputation. The JD(S) is no BSP and he is definitely no Mayawati.
Ravindra – this is about greed and vengance its no longer about promises and pacts
maverick – disgusting or not its a high stakes game which explains the brinkmanship
RoW – dont quite agree that the BJP was a novice, they knew what they were getting into but then they had to blur the secular-communal fault line somewhere and they took their chances. There is ample moral high ground here, the Gowda’s last ditch attempt to scuttle BMIC says it all
Janpar – i think president’s rule is the best option under the circumstances given the attempts to scuttle BMIC at any cost