Disappointing spectacle

0
110

Enarada -  mathihalli madan mohan

ENARADA, Hubli, 

By Mathihalli Madan Mohan

The political scenario in Karnataka   presents  a disappointing spectacle as for as the Congress is concerned, ,even as the poll drums have started beating for the  ensuing loksabha polls, which is turning out to be a  battle ground  for a bitter struggle between the Congress and BJP in quest of  political primacy.

Even as the prince charming of the Congress party and the Prime Minister in waiting Mr. Rahul Gandhi has been hopping from one state to another, in a bid to woo the electorate to enable the party to perform a hat trick in ruling at the Centre, his party men and the party government in Karnataka, appear to be in a state of stupor, hardly venturing out to reach the voters.

Wooing voters of Karnataka, which has 28 loksabha seats, has become crucial to the Congress campaign for a third term at the Centre. With Congress alienating voters in Andhra Pradesh due to mishandling of the Telengana issue, Karnataka has become the only state south of Vindhyas which can make a substantial contribution to the national political kitty of Congress. This has been so especially after the party’s unexpected success in assembly election nearly a year ago.

grpic1

The win in the 2013 elections, had not only ended the decade old power drought for Congress but also the drought of votes for the past three elections for the party. As a consequence the party was poised to repeat its performanance in the loksabha polls, by a making clean sweep to win around 22 seats as against six it had won in 2009. The BJP was poised to further humiliation with the loksabha seats plummeting from 19 to mere two seats. And the third force in Karnataka, slated to win four seats as against three in the past.

The Congress and the BJP, the two principal contenders for power were required to do only two things to prepare themselves for the next round of electoral battle in loksabha elections. The Congress, whichwas propelled to office mainly because of the negative votes arising out of the perceived disenchantment over the BJP’s rule, was expected to go all out to convert the negative votes into positive votes.

The BJP, which had paid a heavy political price for the faction feud was to close its ranks for its sheer survival in the loksabhaelection. And the matter assumed urgency with Narendra Modi, being named as the prime ministerial candidate. Accordingly, the BJP initiated steps to bring back the renegade  former Chief Minister Yeddyurappa back into fold along  with the another  splinter group led by the Sriramulu of  the Janardan Reddy group. And the political equations at the ground level has dramatically improved in its favour, with the party poised to  improve the tally from 2 to eight, with the prospects of increasing the tally in about seven other constituencies being rated high. And the phenomenon of the newly enlisted voters plumping once again for the BJP making things better for the party, is another factor favouring the party.

On the other hand, the development looked quite ominous for the Congress which was expected to make a clean sweep in Karnataka. Its chances of bringing about a victory getting reduced to ten seats and depend on luck for the extra seats, the Janata Dal(S) being able to win one seat of Hassan, held by the patriarch Devegowda instead of three it had won in 2009.

But the Congress surprisingly has remained completely lethargic to the urgent task laying ahead, even when it began its rule but when the politically ominous development of Yeddyurappa’s   home coming took place.

And this feeling of inertia is manifest both at the government and organizational level. Waywardness and listlessness have afflicting both.

Take the case of the government.  Mr. Siddaramaiah was specially chosen to head the government in view of the political challenges to be met in the forthcoming loksabha poll.  The Congress High Command specially picked up Mr. Siddaramaiah notwithstanding the fact that he was recent migrant to the party over many party loyalists and original party men, like Mr. Malllikarjun Kharge, the Union Minister and one of the senior most party functionaries in Karnataka, with an impeccable political record and administrative acumen.

grpic3

The task was cut out for Mr. Siddaramaiah from the day one. It was that the new Congress government, should prove to be qualitatively different from the previous BJP led government, which had acquired a dubious reputation of non-governance and misgovernance with little care or concern for the probity in public life. And this brooked no delay since the time at their disposal to refurbish the image of the government was too short less than a year to be precise.

The nearly nine month’s rule of Mr. Siddaramaiah has been   a totally wasted opportunity, with the precious time squandered   away in trivialities and needless controversies by the Chief Minister and his ministerial colleagues. The administrative grip and discipline, which was lost during the previous regime continues to be elusive and there is no perception of change in the government and leadership. The administration continues to unresponsive to the people’s needs. The disconnect between the people and government continues to rule the roost.

It has proved to be a nonstarter for all practical purpose. The grip over the administration continues to be elusive, as a result of which  the  people still have not been able to perceive any change in the administrative culture which continues to be unresponsive, and the disconnect with between the people and the government continues  as before.

Mr. Siddaramaiah has to take the entire blame for the uninspiring performanance of the government, at a politically crucial juncture for the party.   For all his other good qualities, Mr. Siddaramaiah has proved that he is not a team leader and cannot carry people with him.  It had happened during his role as the Leader of the Opposition during the previous regime and is happening now that he has become a Chief Minister.

A surprising aspect has been that  Mr. Siddaramaiah who is not new to the administration, having had stint in running the administration in different capacities as Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, has not been able to bring the discipline in the administration. The first thing he ought to have done to post the officers known for integrity, with a clean image, to key posts with a view to sending  a message down the line that the government meant business and that cavalier  attitude of the past is  a taboo in the new dispensation. Mere talking tough without matching action, and always indulging in whip lashing for the does not bring any dividends.

He should have known this from his experience. But he continues indulge in this antic and latest has been the manner in which he whip lashed the police for their inaction at the meeting of the senior police officers on Tuesday (4th Feb). Was he unaware of unaware of the lapses in the working of the department and if so what measures his government took to rectify them. The casualness that the government when a police officer was killed while tackling a terrorist hole up in Gulbarga is quite shocking indeed.

The political naivety he has displayed in policy formulations fails one’s comprehension. When he was required to put his best foot forward in making his government endear to the people, with a view to consolidate their support for the party, Mr. Siddaramaiah appeared casual about. He announced a slew of populist programmes designed to bring political dividends for the party; all of them were hit by the roadblocks of administrative inefficiency. All of them besides appeared to be his brain view rather than the consensus of the party and in some cases; even the concerned ministers were hardly consulted. Instead of having a think tank to wet the proposal Mr. Siddaramaiah acted more impulse than anything.

If the Chief Minister was this casual in implementing the taskassigned to him, his ministers were not expected to be more serious. Apart from mismatch and imbalance, in the allocation of portfolios, the manner in which the Mr. DK Shivakumar and Mr. Roshan Baig,  two of the legislators reportedly involved in  illegal mining activity and other charges  not only exacerbated the unrest in the party, but dented the image of  the party  were inducted in the cabinet, which  was expected to act firmly in cases of corruption. The government slept over the matter of permitting the prosecution of the officers caught in the Lokayukta raids and hence did not exactly enhance the reputation and averments made to this effect during the days when Congress had led a padayatra against corruption during the BJP regime. Cohesion and dynamism are the two things which have been missing the working of the ministers and the ministry hardly works as a team. The legislators are busier in wangling a foreign trips rather than attending to the problems of the constituencies.

grpic1 (3)

Dr Parameshwara, who has been heading the organization from the pre assembly election days and felt miffed when he could not get the berth in the cabinet as Deputy Chief Minister as was being demanded by his supporters continues to sulk even today and has practically ignored the imperative necessity of overhauling the organization and make it battle fit in the context of ensuing loksabha election. Both Dr Parameshwara and the Chief Minister are hardly on talking terms. And the party’s advice in running the government is hardly sought and acted upon if given too. The much touted coordination committee headed by Mr. Digvijay Singh, the AICC General Secretary in charge of Karnataka has practically remained on paper.

The party units are more interested in lobbying for the party tickets, rising in needlessly starting controversies over the candidatures. The classic example has been the manner in which canvassing has been started over  the candidature of Mr. Harsha Moily, son of Mr. Veerappa Moily Union Minister after the district unit had forwarded  single name of Janaradan Poojary senior leader of the Dakshina Kannada, who has been losing the election by slender margin  for the past four loksabha election. The party workers in the districts have been disenchanted   with the party government over the unusual delay in filling the posts of chairmen of the corporations and boards and nominating the members to these bodies, which has become a standard practice for rewarding the party men’s contribution to the party work.  All district units have been uniformly inactive throughout the state.

It appears that the party expects the voters on their own to vote as has been the wont all these days, rather than wooing them for their support.

(Posted on February 5 , 2014 @ 4 pm)

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

The views expressed on the website are those of the Columnists/ Authors/Journalists / Correspondents and do not necessarily reflect the views of ENARADA.

 

 

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

*

code