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Bangalore: Three
topics dominated Karnataka in 2010 - polls, political instability
and scandals over land, mining and sex.
More than half the state, 17 of 30 districts, will end the year
voting for the taluka (sub-district) and zilla (district)
panchayat elections Dec 31.
Gulbarga district will have the distinction of beginning 2011 by
voting for these panchayats. The other 12 districts had voted Dec
26.
But the New Year is set to start on an acrimonious note with
results being announced Jan 4. If the party performs poorly,
knives will be again be out to oust B.S. Yeddyurappa, the
Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) first chief minister in south
India.
The opposition Congress and Janata Dal-Secular are determined to
rile Yeddyurappa and several ministers over land and mining
scandals in the legislature session starting Jan 6.
There is a distinct possibility of intensified confrontation
between Governor H.R. Bhardwaj and the ruling party as he has to
read out a speech Jan 6 to a joint sitting of the assembly and
council to mark their first session in 2011.
Bhardwaj has been lashing out at Yeddyurappa in public for
allegedly favouring his kin with prime land in and around
Bangalore.
The governor has also been demanding that the chief minister take
action against powerful mining barons and ministers Reddy brothers
and their associate Health Minister B. Sriramulu over alleged
illegal iron ore mining.
As the year was ending, he got a new issue to hammer at
Yeddyurappa - charging the Reddy brothers, Tourism Minister G.
Janardhana and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara, and Sriramulu with
evading income tax of around Rs.86 crore.
The constitution requires the governor to read out the speech
prepared by the government, listing its achievements to the first
sitting of the legislature in the year.
With Bhardwaj declaring publicly that he was not happy with the
functioning of the government and Yeddyurappa's failure to explain
his land dealings, the governor may demand changes in the speech -
which would be opposed by the BJP.
While the chief minister has been mild in his criticism of
Bhardwaj, his party colleagues have been calling him a 'Congress
agent'. An attempt by Bhardwaj to change the speech could turn out
to be a major constitutional issue.
With this not-so-pleasant scenario at the beginning of the new
year, people of Karnataka have to forget 2010 that saw Yeddyurappa
almost losing his chair to rebel activity, Haratalu Halappa
quitting the ministry over charges of raping his friend and
Ramachandra Gowda resigning in disgrace over irregularities in
recruitment to medical colleges.
The 2010 winter dawned with Yeddyurappa's land deals rolling out -
he allotted a residential site in an upscale Bangalore locality to
his Lok Sabha member son B.Y. Raghavendra, who gave a false
declaration that he did not have residential property in the city
while owning one.
Then came a series of allegations that Yeddyurappa favoured his
other son, daughters, a son-in-law, a sister, her daughter and
son-in-law with land.
The year-end polls came in handy to Yeddyurappa to buy time from
the party central leadership, which found his dealings a major
embarrassment when it was training guns on the central government
over the 2G spectrum, Commonwealth Games and other scandals.
Other scandals also erupted in the state.
Self-styled Hindu godman Nityananda Swami did his time in jail for
his alleged romps with his women disciples. He is out on bail but
facing charges of raping women and even boys.
The year was also witness to a high-profile resignation episode -
Lok Ayukta (ombudsman) N. Santosh Hegde, a retired Supreme Court
judge, quit as he was upset with Yeddyurappa's handling of the
illegal mining issue.
Hegde was, however, persuaded to stay by senior BJP leader L.K.
Advani. Later, BJP president Nitin Gadkari muddied the waters
further by saying the ombudsman was behaving like an opposition
leader.
Karnataka was hit by the worst air tragedy in 10 years in the
country when Air India Express flight from Dubai crashed at
Mangalore airport May 22, killing 158 of the 160 passengers and
six crew members.
Despite the downslide in the political plane, the nation's IT hub
hosted two high-profile diplomatic visits - British Prime Minister
David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
But US President Barack Obama skipped Bangalore on his first
official visit to India.
With repeated attempts by the US to impose some restriction or the
other on outsourcing and the state political drama at its peak,
there was not any disappointment at Obama giving a miss to
Bangalore.
(V.S. Karnic
can be contacted at vs.karnic@ians.in)
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