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Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who is presiding over the first Bharatiya Janata Party government in the South, has completed two years in office. Understandably, the government has desisted from high profile celebrations in the wake of Mangalore air crash and the more recent tragedy in Chitradurga district, where at least 30 passengers died after a state-run bus turned turtle and caught fire. However, the government seems to be making up for this lost opportunity by going ahead with its proposed Sadhana Samavesha in Bangalore's Palace Grounds on June 16 to showcase the achievement of the government.
How has the government fared in the past 750-odd days of its rule in Karnataka? How has the first full-fledged BJP cabinet in the state gone about performing its duties and responsibilities? These are some of the questions that will certainly be debated by the people at this juncture. All agree that it would not be possible for any government to implement all its electoral promises within the first two years. But has this government shown enough commitment and resolve to make an honest attempt at realizing the goals that it had set to achieve?
Even an amateur student of Karnataka politics would admit that there is a wide gap between expectations and reality as far as the performance of the government is concerned. Lack of intent and purpose is too glaring to go unnoticed as at least half of the cabinet members have not even bothered to spell out the progress made in their respective departments in the last two years. The chief secretary of the government himself had recently expressed his outrage at the failure of many in the cabinet to regularly attend their offices in the Vidhana Saudha and the Vikasa Saudha.
Interestingly, this government seems to be attracting more problems with each passing day than solving the existing ones. Take for example the plight of the flood-affected people in at least 11 of the north Karnataka districts, where no concerted effort has been made to rehabilitate the displaced masses that are still living in temporary shelters. Even after a good 15 months, they have not received the rightful compensation. Unfortunately, the government which chose to ignore the plight of these hapless millions has gone about spending crores on Krishnadevaraya Pattabhishekha memorial celebrations in Bellary. This was a classic flashback to the days of King Nero playing violin when Rome was on fire.
Supporters of BSY may try to portray the recent electoral gains of the BJP as a testimony to the party's growing popularity among the masses. There is no denying the fact that the party has outwitted its rivals in all the elections since the May 2008 assembly elections, whether it is the by-elections, the legislative council election, or the most recent Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) election, where the ruling party decimated both Congress and Janata Dal. But the fact which many people tend to ignore is that the electoral gains have hardly anything to do with the government's performance. This is actually the direct result of the inefficiency of the Congress and Janata Dal, who have been besieged by factionalism and infighting.
The abject failure of the opposition parties to tackle the government has been exposed several times over the last 24 months. They failed miserably when the Reddy brothers had virtually hijacked the government for nearly two-three weeks and nearly managed to pull the carpet under BSY's chair. When the entire government machinery had come to the verge of collapse during those dark days of heightened dissidence activities in the state, none of the Congress leaders grabbed it as an opportunity to bring the government to its knees. In fact, some of the very senior Congress leaders chose to treat it as an intra-party affair. As a result, the government was able to come out of the chaos unscathed and in the bargain, a decent enough minister in the cabinet, Shobha Karandlaje, had to step down just to buy peace with the rampaging Reddy brothers.
From then onwards, the government has invariably landed in one problem or the other. The Bellary Reddy trio, who were emboldened after the' power-sharing' continue to be the bugbear for the chief minister, playing the role of an extra-constitutional power centre to perfection. Ironically, it was left to the Governor, as the custodian of the rule of law, to rein in the unruly trio. And as expected the unprecedented move by Mr. H.R. Bharadhwaj to issue notices to them has sparked a new political row. Whatever be the constitutional and legal fall-out of Mr. Bharadhwaj's political activism, he has exposed the pathetic condition of the opposition parties in the state.
The two-year report card of the BSY regime would be incomplete without the mention of the deteriorating law and order situation across the state. In fact districts like Bellary, Shimoga have become the fiefdom of ruling party goons, where there is hardly any regard for the rule of law. Despite tall claims of honesty and propriety in public life, there seems to be hardly any difference in the way governance is carried out by the 'party with a difference' and its immediate predecessors. Corruption is rampant, with a number of ministers facing serious charges with regard to misappropriation of public funds. The alleged sex scandal involving senior cabinet minister Haratalu Halappa has damaged the image of the government beyond repair. And yet another minister beset with charges of moral turpitude, Mr Renukacharya is shamelessly clinging on to power, without showing any regard to morality and ethics.
From an inefficient home minister V.S Acharya to an inarticulate sports minister Goolihatty Shekhar, the first BJP government in the South is replete with jewels and pearls. We have seen how Mr Acharya was a virtual bystander when there were concerted attacks on churches across Karnataka by the Sangh Parivar activists. He also has the ignominy of presiding over the lathicharges and shootings on innocent farmers in Haveri and Chamrajnagar. The suspected murder of Padmapriya, the wife of Udupi MLA Raghupati Bhat and the communal riots in Shimoga and Hassan also brought to light his inefficiency in handling law and order issues. The failure of the administration to make any headway with regard to the investigation of two minor bomb blasts outside the Bangalore cricket stadium during an IPL match shows how inept our intelligence department is.
In a nutshell, the only standout achievement of BSY and his government could be its ability to survive against odds. Despite committing some of the biggest blunders in the recent political history, the government has been able to cling on to power, without any sense of shame or regret. As a journalist colleague of mine rightly pointed out, BSY cannot be compared with any of the contemporary chief ministers in the county, because there aren't any worse than him.
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