Meandering aimlessly

By Madan Mohan

Enarada, June 25, 2013

Besides being in office for more than a month, the Congress ministry headed by Mr. Siddaramaiah in Karnataka appears to be meandering without any direction and purpose, blissfully unaware of the myriad challenges it has to face in the coming days.

A biggest political challenge that awaits the party and government in Karnataka next electoral battle for loksabha, which are hardly ten months away,  and the possibility of early elections looming large on the horizon , on which hinges the fate of the UPS-2 government at the centre. The party which is in dire strait which some of the trusted allies deserting the alliance has an arduous task of cobbling up numbers to hold on to the power.

It is here that Karnataka comes into play.  Karnataka had been once been a recognized political forte of Congress contributing sometimes the cent percent of the total of 27 seats (now it is 28) to the Congress political kitty. But of late the Congress has been gradually losing its base. In 2004 the number of Congress MPs elected from Karnataka was 8 and this was further reduced to measly six, perhaps its lowest tally in the recent years.

The recent victory which was almost by default for the Congress has raised newer expectations in the Congress high command its tally can substantially go up this time.  Is it possible to make up for the loss Congress is expected to suffer in Andhra Pradesh from Karnataka, has been the thinking of the Congress high command. And it is with this end in view that high command chose to put Siddaramaiah in saddle, not withstanding the fact Mr. Siddaramaiah is a migrant and latest entrant to the Congress stables. In this process, the Congress had no compunction to sideline, another strong contender for the post Mr. Mallikarjan Kharge, a party loyalist and Union Minister for Labour (now given Railway portfolio, as a sop, as it were).

The task is by no means easy, since the Congress   won more by default, mainly as a result of the division of the BJP votes between the parent party and the two breakaway groups, the KJP of the former Chief Minister, Mr. Yeddyurappa   and BSR Congress of the former Minister, Mr. Sriramulu of the Janaradan Reddy group. It was not by any means a comfortable victory. If the trend is repeated in the loksabha elections, too, the Congress may have no problem in increasing tally from Karnataka, but in case, the BJP and its breakaway groups chose to come together, formally through merger, or informally through alliance, the things may become really difficult for Congress. The emergence of Mr. Modi as the new mascot of the BJP, has given rise to hopes for a possible closing of the ranks in the BJP in Karnataka. A spokesman of the KJ P has already hinted toward alliance with BJP.  For sheer survival of BJP and Yeddyurappa, it is imperative that they come together. And Modi definitely would not like to lose Karnataka, since BJP has been depending on the state for swelling its ranks.

Of the new government’s performanance is viewed in this context, one is sure to discern the drifting phenomenon of the government. Mr. Siddaramaiah has been going in his way all aimed at building himself up personally rather than furthering the interest and consolidating the position of the party. His announcement on the very first day he assumed office without any cabinet, about supplying the rice at One rupee per Kg, for all BPL card holders has hit a road block. The Centre had firmly turned down his demand for additional supply of rice to meet the demand.  To get the going somehow, he has taken two steps, which are definitely not going to bring him laurels. One is he has  cut the quota given to the APL card holders and go in for market purchase for remaining quantum, at a heavy outgo of resources.

His act of bravado of trying to provide cheap liquor has not exactly enhanced the image of the party government and has evoked widespread criticism.

Politically, he has not lifted a finger as yet to iron out the simmering difference between the migrants and loyalist within his party, which is getting increasingly restive on the pretext that the power is concentrated in the hands of migrants to the exclusion of the loyalist. Dr Parameshwar, the PCC President  continues to sulk for the denial of berth to him the cabinet and has not been attending the meeting of the party legislature giving a clear signal that all was not well with the party.

Another  faux pas committed by the government has been its attitude towards the decentralization, which has been touted all along as the one of the flagship programmes of the party at the highest level, a programme ushered in under the aegis of late Rajiv Gandhi.

In a sudden and unexpected move, the government introduced and got passed in the assembly, a bill to amend the  Panchayat Raj Act, providing interalia for the removal of the adhyaksha for the failure to  periodically hold the meetings of the gram sabhas and ward sabhas.

The concept of the gram sabha envisaged  in the act, is very unique. In a way it represents the paramountcy of the people in deciding on the development plans, All the able bodies voters become automatically the members of the gram/ward sabha at the  village/ward level. It is the gramsabha which proposes the scheme for inclusion in the plans and it is at the forum that the plans drawn by the gram panchayat are approved. The gram sabhas have been given the powers to select beneficiaries of the different schemes like ashraya and housing .

The gram sabha as has been envisaged in the act, has proved to be the weakest link, thereby reducing the efficacy of the decentralized system of administration. Either the meetings are not held or if held, the attendance is poor and the taluk level officials who are designated to attend such meetings hardly turn up making the whole exercise ridiculous. How to  ensure that the gram sabha meetings are regularly held and  ensure good attendance have been two questions which have been plaguing the minds of those interested in the decentralization experiment and the  solution is eluding them for quite sometime, despite wide spread debate taking place.

This being so, the new government, gets amendment bill passed without much discussion and consultation providing interalia for the removal  of the adhyaksha for his failure to do so. The government in its wisdom puts the entire blame on the adhyaksha, which is not correct.  A poor attendance at the gram sabha meetings may enable the adhyaksha also to manipulate the proceedings in connivance of the officials. The votaries of the decentralization have expressed  shock and surprise over  this bureaucratic approach and have building public opinion to ensure that the amendment bill is not approved in the Legislative Council.

The paradox  has been that Mr. H K Patil, who has a better insight into the panchayat raj system is the concerned minister, who is known to have a mind of his own.  Everybody was happy when he was given the portfolio. But the manner in which he allowed an amendment bill to be passed which takes away the democratic spirit .

A meeting later  convened by the Rural Development and Panchayat Development Ministry for “consultations”, revealed another facet of the mindset of the political masters. What sounded rather odd was the observation made by the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah describing the panchayats as the fountain head of corruption and how the panchayat membes spend lavishly on elections and later try to recover the same. What could not be understood was why the Chief Minister singled out the panchayats while conveniently forgetting that corruption was on massive scale among the legislators and ministers and he leads a party, where the almost all members are crorepatis.

When Uttarakhand  was reeling under the cloud burst of unprecedented dimension putting in jeopardy the lives of the pilgrims visiting Badarinath and Kederanath shrines, including a sizeable section from Karnataka, the response of the government  to arrange for the rescue of the Karnataka people stranded there was too lackadaisical. While other states like Punjab, and Haryana could send the aero planes to pick up the stranded people, Karnataka moved rather slowly and was among the last to reach Dehradun to extend help.

(Author is a Senior Journalist and Columnist.  Mobile: +91 94480 74872     Email : madan.mm@gmail.com)