Hubli, 16th December 2010

Karnataka, is going through a hype of unprecedented dimensions, over the impending polls to the second and third tiers of the three tier panchayat raj system in the more than two decade history of the movement for the democratic decentralization in Karnataka.
It does not however signify the growing awareness on the part of the political parties in Karnataka, of the importance of the system and the imperative necessity of strengthening the same with view to bringing about the all round improvement of the rural areas. For none of them have ever bothered with this aspect and have not lifted a single finger to promote or strengthen system and they have the track record of consistently trying to emasculate and weaken the system as for as possible.
But the sheer political compulsions have made them zero in on the polls, scheduled to be held by the end of this month. For the BJP, it is an opportunity to get bailed out from the serious of scams in which it has landed itself on its own volition. And an answer to the opposition which have been braying for its blood and for its ouster The Yeddyurappa government has been viewing the system as an opportunity to get the mandate from the rural albeit from the rural areas as an answer to its critics.
For the opposition, the Congress and JDS, who have tried all the tricks in their armoury to unseat the government through means fair or foul, wants to prove that the mandate which the BJP had got in 2008 assembly poll is waning and that the people are against the BJP.
But the moot point is that commonality of interests has not been reflected in the commonality of the approach. The dilemma for them is that they are damned if they come together and more damned if they don’t come together. For they suffer from mutual conflict of interest at the grass root level. One party has to grow at the cost of another in any constituency allocated to their share.
The elections to the taluk and zilla panchayats have become imperative since the five year term of the most of these bodies, are coming to an end by January this year and the constitutional mandate requires that the elections are held before the expiry of the five year term.
But the present government like the Congress coalition led by Mr. Dharam Singh in 2005 was not exactly willing to adhere to the time schedule. It was waiting for the alibis to postpone them. But a direction of the Supreme Court in May requiring state governments to limit the total reservations to 50% came in handy. The total reservations in Karnataka for the SCs STs and the OBCs was more than 60% and the implementation of the same would result in reduction of the seats, for OBCs, a constituency in which BJP was not very comfortable.
And the government grabbed the opportunity to implement the same through the ordinance, in November with the not so friendly Governor having no compunctions in going along the state governments view. The State Election Commission, accordingly started process and came out with a matrix of reservations. And all hell broke lose when the SEC published the matrix. The quota of the OBCs in zilla panchayats came down by 109 seats, and by 482 in taluk panchayts.
Both the Congress and the JDS cried foul and dubbed the measure as something inimical to the OBCs interests. And cried hoarse urging the state government to retrace its steps. It is here that the BJP played its cards well. Not willing to be dubbed as anti OBC on the eve of panchayat elections it made attempts to retrace the steps and proposed to issue another ordinance and as anticipated the Governor turned it down on the ground interalia that it was violative of the Supreme Court’s directions.
It looked as is the Governor had snubbed the BJP again. But the reality was otherwise. It had turned the Governors penchant to its advantage to serve its political interest and silenced the Congress, which was depending too much on the Governor for fixing the government.
Congress which was very vocal in crying foul in the first instance, has been made to eat its own words, when the Governor turned down the second proposal for restoring quota.. It is not known whether it tried in vain to prevail upon the friendly Governor to do so? If it did try, the efforts apparently did not succeed. They lost a political weapon too. The party cans no longer make a political capital of the developments in the forthcoming elations to deride the BJP. For, who stood in the way of the restoration of quota was not the State Government but the Governor. And criticizing the Governor does not benefit them in any way.
Politically also, the BJP is one step ahead of its political rivals. BJP finds that the time is ripe for holding the elections to the grass root level democratic institutions. It has fully prepared itself for the hustings. It has virtually launched the election campaign too and the Chief Minister Mr. Yeddyurappa is touring the districts implementing the specially designed government programme of the distribution of sarees to rural women, with a view to wooing them. With a tongue in the cheek statement, the state BJP President, Mr. Eshwarappa has said that the party would make up whatever the quota the OBCs lost by providing the increased representation to this section in the allotment party tickets. He has through this statement thrown a gauntlet at the opposition.
On the other hand, the opposition parties, both the Congress and the JDS are in total disarray. They are yet to come out of their fixation of berating the government for the plethora of scams including the land grabbing by the Minister, to come to terms with the political realities facing them.
As the things stand today, the BJP appears to have all the aces up its sleeves. Going by the track record of the previous panchayat elections, rural voters have a tendency to go with the party in power always. It had benefited the undivided Janata Dal and the Congress in the past. It maybe the BJPs turn to derive the advantage this time. Has the gamble by Yeddyurappa paid off? It appears so at the moment..
For what the disarrayed opposition is busy in doing is to endlessly hark on scams, instead of listing out the failure of the government in strengthening the panchayat raj system. They have not been able to come out with manifesto on what they would do to achieve goal, if they are trusted with power at the panchayat level. The government, which has ace in its sleeves, can afford not to talk about it. But the opposition can ill afford not doing it.
Yeddyurappa finds himself in a win win situation. He can glow in glory in case of win, terming it as a renewed mandate in favour of his policies. In the case of adverse verdict, he can say that the opinion is warped, with the urban voters not being part of it and get away within. Besides the BJP, what ever may be verdict, cannot afford to dislodge him because of the TINA (There Is No Alternative) factor.

Eom 0816hrs. 16.12.2010

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Unobtrusive work in cementing literary bonds

HUBLI, Dec 10, 2010

At a time, when anything and everything said or done, provides grist to the increasing acrimony over the linguistic dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra, a Pune based housewife, has been ploughing the lonely furrow inobtrusively to promote amity and mutual understanding.

Mrs. Uma Kulkarni of Pune does not know Kannada. But this has not come in the way of her translating around 35 Kannada books of the famous authors of Kannada including Bhairappa, Shivaram Karanth, and Girish Karnad, Anantha Murthy, Mrs Sudha Murthy and others. . Her ally in this stupendous task has been none other than his life mate, Mr. Virupaksha Kulkarni.

How did they do it? “It is simple. My husband reads the Kannada books for me and I read the Marathi books to him” she says.

The couple incidentally is from Belgaum and has different linguistic background. Virupaksha's mother tongue is Kannada and Uma’s is Marathi. They have been helping out each other in discovering the intrinsic literary merit of the books and introduce the same for the benefit of the readers of their respective languages.

What has been a surprise has been the manner in which the Marathi readers received here books. Several of her books have undergone reprinting. Some cases, it has gone up to five or six reprints. That the translated works have evoked good response is evident from the several rounds of discussions in the literary fora of the works and original authors too. And even books have come out on the proceedings of the seminars and discussions held. On the celebrated Kannada author Mr. S L Bhairappa, several rounds of discussions have taken place (which is something not frequently heard in Kannada) and even Marathi papers are quite liberal in taking note of the developments in the literary firmament. She has been a recipient of the award from the Central Sahitya Academy too.

“You may have enjoyed reading the books for seven to eight days, the time you take to complete the reading. But in my case, I have enjoyed these books are eight to nine months, till my translation work is complete” Mrs. Kulkarni told the audience in Belgaum, the other day, where she had come to receive the award in recognition of her contribution by the Nadoja Pratisthan. Incidentally it was the first ever award she got from Karnataka. “When I have received several awards in Maharashtra, it is good and touching to receive the recognition from the mother in laws side” she remarked in a typical housewives’ tone. (The reference is to the fact that Kannada happens to be mother tongue of her in-laws family in Karnataka).

“I don’t know how the Karnataka and the Kannada people failed to take note of your signal contribution in cementing the literary bonds between Kannada and Marathi” remarked 90 year old Mr. Patil Puttappa, a veteran writer and journalist.

Mrs. Uma has a doctorate from S N D T University Mumbai, for her thesis on the Dravidian temple sculpture.

Eom .10.12.2010

Avoidable controversy

HUBLI, 28^TH Nov. 2010

Poor Yeddyurappa. He is a victim of his own habits. He is impulsive in his reactions, a habit which he has carried from his days as the state unit and Leader of the BJP opposition in the Karnataka Assembly. He often puts his foot into his mouth.

He has a penchant for giving promise, with no thought whatsoever of redeeming them. He is liberal with both.

These have often dragged him into veritable quagmire of controversies needlessly.

The latest one to surface has been the one in which he has pitted himself with Karnataka Lokayukta, Mr. Justice Santosh Hegde, over the propriety of the state government constituting a judicial commission to go into land denotification issue, when the matter is pending with Lokayukta..

From all points of view, this was an avoidable controversy. Only sometime ago, Mr. Yeddyurappa had brokered peace when Mr. Hegde put in his papers dissatisfied as he was with the manner in which the State Government was hedging the demand for the grant of the suomotto powers of investigation into the cases of corruption. (Under the present rules, the Lokayukta can only act on the basis of the written complaint and in the absence of the same; he can’t proceed in the matter and it for the removal of this impediment, that he has been demanding the grant of suo motto power).

In view of the public outcry over the episode, Mr. Yeddyurappa had to seek the intervention of the BJPs higher-ups including the patriarch Mr. L K Advani in making Mr. Hegde relent. Mr. Hegde was promised that the needful action would be taken to meet his demand. But this has hardly materialized in the days that followed. What has happened is that the government has met the demand halfway only leaving the main question unresolved.

From all points of view, this was an avoidable controversy. It does not stand to reason, why the Karnataka Chief Minister should open another front for fight, when he had won a reprieve by a whisker as it were from the party high command which wanted to give him the marching orders. It has opened the raw wound of uneasy relations between the state government and the Lokayukta, at a time, when the issue had almost gone out of the memory of the people.

One may concede that the decision to go in for judicial commission was the impulsive reaction from Mr. Yeddyurappa, when in the light of the raining of the land denotification scandal involving his own kith and kin, had prompted the high command to think in terms of asking him to quit. But the subsequent events have proved that it is a deliberate action. In an unusual reaction, the state government seeks the status report from the Lokayukta on all the matters entrusted to it for enquiry, while the state government is known to be sitting over the reports already sent by Lokayukta, thus coming in the way of the enquiry reaching the logical end. Not only those, the BJP legislators are let lose on the Lokayukta, with one of them demanding the apology from the Lokayukta to the Chief Minister and threaten to organize a demonstration in front of the office of the Lokayukta. The action smacks of attitude of the political vengeance, which is uncalled for since, the Lokayukta is not a political office, Mr. Santosh Hegde is not a person, who has any political ambition to be fulfilled.

It is not clear what Mr. Yeddyurappa wants to achieve by this kind of action? One plausible explanation could be that he would like to complicate the matter by having parallel enquiry by two separate agencies, and create a legal conundrum to delay the process of enquiry one way or other.

Mr. Yeddyurappa in his wisdom genuinely believed that the judicial enquiry would serve the ends more than the one conducted by the Lokayukta, nothing prevented him from having informal consultation to avoid any acrimony or needless controversy.

That Mr. Hegde, the Lokayukta has been hurt very much by diatribe opened by the government is evident from his strong reaction. Mr. Hegde, who is otherwise quite restrained and balanced in his remarks, made an emotional remark that if the government so desired, it could abolish the Lokayukta by repealing the law.

Mr. Yeddyurappa and his cohorts should understand that Lokayukta today enjoys better credibility than the BJP government and this is the one controversy they could have avoided on the eve of electoral challenge ahead in the form of the panchayat elections next month. The inimical attitude towards the Lokayukta inherent in the state government’s action and observations cannot be hidden by any explanation made on behalf of the government. More over there is hardly anything that government gains politically by throwing innuendos against the style of the working of Lokayukta.

Understanding Bendre

HUBLI, November 27:

“Rasave Janana,/

Virasa Marana/

Samarasave Jeevana”

These lilting lines, spreading the message harmony in a world torn asunder by the discords, dissensions, greed and avarice, penned by Kannada’s poet laureate Da. Ra. Bendre, a literary colossus who strode majestically on the firmament of modern Kannada literature for more than seven decades, continue to be on the lips of every Kannada speaking person even today.

Even thirty years after his demise, same liveliness and contemporary relevance, and this has been embellished by the assiduous efforts underway to analyse and interpret his writings for the benefit of the posterity.

“Bendre is an evergreen poet,” says the poet, Chennaveera Kanavi. “I don’t mind admitting that every time I read his poems, I acquire newer insights. The process of learning never stops”

Better known by his pen name, Ambikatanaya Datta, the poet, a recipient of the prestigious Jnanapitha awardee, was a poet par excellence of a different genre. Poetry was his first love, and was quite at home with other forms of literature like the dramas, prose, satire, and short stories.

Poem for him was a mere translation of his pangs and pains. He would often say that the poet in him speaks and he was a mere scribe. “Enna Paadu enagirali / Nanna Haadannashte koduve, Rasika” (Let my sufferings remain with me /But I would give you song Oh Rasika), he would often say. .

What made his poetries sparkle and appealing to the common man, were that they were rooted in desi Kannada of the Dharwad region, and were extremely lyrical too and was liberal in using the colloquial idioms. He was a magician par excellence with words and his capacity to create imageries was something superb.

Besides being a multifaceted literary personality, Bendre was a visionary, a philosopher and scientific thinker and was far ahead of time. He had eternal hopes in the dawn of a world of peace, without hatred and bereft of poverty and hunger. “Let not the cry of unborn babe is heard anywhere in the world “he would say.

Another facet of his personality came to light during the last phase of life. Bendre had developed a fascination for the study of numbers and had evolved number of theories. He would often give his blessings in numbers.

Just he passed away on the day of the festival of lights way back in 1981 at the far away Mumbai hospital, the hospital staff asked for a message from the poet. His response was “881 and 441”, which represented as he himself made it clear “Hridaya and Viveka”. These were essential for the emergency of a health world, he said. As back as in forties, Bendre had said in his presidential address at the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in Shimoga, that the fusion of material science and literature were the essential tool in quest of truth. He would often say that mere literature alone would not help realize the truth but it has to be tempered with material science.

For those, who were unaware of the thought process of the Bendre, which was an amalgam of philosophical thoughts, couched in scientific theories, mathematical combination, found it difficult to fathom the hidden meaning of his poetries.

And Bendre was aware of that. “Dharwad takkadi innoo tookaane aagilla. Horataava chakadi, hortaava chakadi…,” was his favorite observation about his works not being properly assessed or understood by the society. He had alluded himself to the Dharwad Scale “Takkadi”, which is waiting to be weighed. (Takkadi tooka, is typical desi expression, which is used in the rural areas especially in the rural market for pricing the produce brought) .The scale of evaluation of his poetry was to emerge, while cartloads of literature continued to be produced. (

And the situation remained so when his end came in 1981. He had left behind a rich legacy of literature, in the form published works, manuscripts waiting to see the light of the day, the plethora of notes and jottings he had made on practically each page of the more 16,000 books in his personal library. All this was waiting to be deciphered and interpreted and brought out.

This arduous task, stupendous by any standards has been bravely taken up by a two member team comprising of Dr Vaman Bendre, the son and Dr K S Sharma, his close disciple, both of whom by their close association with the poet, have a keen insight into the thinking, the philosophical strands and the language used by the poet.

For them it has been a more labor of love and a sure way of keeping Bendres memory alive for the posterity. Combining themselves in the name of the Bendre Research Institute Hubli , the two member duo, have ploughed a lonely furrow and put in indefatigable efforts to bring out more than 25,000 pages of literature in the post Bendre era.. It includes;

· Six volumes comprising of entire gamut of poems written by Bendre in his sojourn lasting more than seven decades. It is not a mere mechanical collection of whatever has been published. But it is thematically arranged, with apt commentaries and graphic illustration and presented in an epic form, since the poet always used to say that his life was nothing but an epic.

· Two volumes on Mother and Aurobindo and Sakhi geete a song of life partner described mini epic.

· Three volumes on dramas

· Kavyodya a prose volume on aesthetics, its philosophy in his poems.

· Besides the Research Institute has brought out 35 individual anthology of collection of poems, five selections , 14 stage plays independently and Taledanda relating to Basaveshwara and another a book transcreated by Bendre from the work of Sanskrit write Bhasa based an episode in Ramayana ; 13 selection of Bendre poems, with musical notations, in a bid to introduce a new concept of Bendre Sangeet on the pattern of Tagore Sangeet and translation of Kahlil Gibrans “Good Earth” and writing son Bendre by contemporary writers.

And the latest to come out to the stables of the Bendre Research Institute have been the 13^th volume in the series of the collected works of Bendre, namely, Sahitya Yoga Sidhanta, a treatise on aesthetics in Bendre prose, and Bendre Samagra Kaavya Nighantu, a dictionary of the words used by the poet, compiled by the leading linguist, Dr B B Rajpurohit, who incidentally had collaborated with Dr Nichida of Japaan in bringing out Kannada English Japanese dictionary.

The Sahitya Yoga Siddhanta , the second prose volume brought out mainly deals with the aesthetics in prose and comprise of five parts – namely a) Theory of literary prose; b) Samvada – translation of his marathi articles; c) short stories, which Bendre would often describe as common mans epics including Transcreation of Chinese stories and adapted to Indian settings ; d) Kadambari yoga, with Bendre writing the finale of relay writing of the novel by eleven authors, in an unique literary experiment undertaken by Manohar Grantha Mala, and e) ten satires

The significance of the 170 page lexicon lies in the fact that it deals with only the words which are not found in other dictionaries and the emphasis is on the colloquial Kannada used by the poet, which are peculiar to this part of Karnataka, which are hardly understood by the other regional colloquial Kannada spoken spoken elsewhere in the state and also on the words which have more than one meanings.

“Oh Manava, Bidu Durabihmanava/ Oh Daanava kodu Hridaya Daanavaa,” which could be loosely translated as, “Oh man, shun the ego/ Oh demon, donate your heart.” This is a typical example of diglosia found in the work of Bendre. Both the words Maanava and Daanava have different meanings in the two contexts

These books were released to mark the 30^th annual memorial day of the poet the other day during the just concluded Deepavali festival Mr. Chennavira Kanavi, the leading poet expressed the view that by using the Dharwad desi Kannada, Bendre had raised his literature to cosmic heights In a way Bendre could be placed a notch above the English poet, W B Yeats, who while being Irish, gave up the desi to start writing in English.

Dr K Raghavendra Rao, who has translated several of works of Bendre including the Jnanapith award winning work “Naku Tanti” in English, said that “Bendre who had transcended the barriers of language deserves to be treated on par with Shakespere and Yeats. No lexicon can fully help understand Bendre.

“We cannot afford to rest on our laurels and we still have a long long way to go” say modestly, Dr Vaman Bendre and Dr K Sharma and add many other publications about Bendre are in the pipeline.

Eom

High Command with no command

Mathihalli Madan Mohan

Senior Journalist and Columnist

Hubli 580032

(Mobile 94480-74872)

HUBLI, Nov. 27, 2010

The Yeddyuarppa episode has brought into sharp focus the phenomenon of diminishing authority of the BJP High Command in the recent years, especially after the party’s abortive efforts to recapture power at the Centre.

Any strong Chief Minister can dare the party high command and get away with it. The Gujarat Chief Minister Mr. Narendra Modi had done it in the past. Now it has been the turn of the Karnataka Chief Minister to follow suit.

Unable to handle a defiant Karnataka Chief Minister, the BJP leadership led by the younger generation leader Mr. Nitish Gadkari pocketed its pride in resoling from its earlier demand that Mr. Yeddyurappa quit and acquiesced to his continuation in office meekly. The impression that it is a temporary reprieve that Mr. Yeddyurappa got till the all important and locally important panchayat elections slated next month would be held was punctured by Mr. Yeddyurappa, who on his triumphant return to Bangalore declared that he was there for the full term. The apologetic words by the party high command justifying its volte-face in the matter were too feeble to mislead anybody.

In doing so, the BJP leadership opted for practical politics rather than meandering on the ideological plane, at least for public consumption. For the BJP what appeared to be more important at the moment, was not to jeopardize the continuance of the only saffron government south of Vindhyas rather than worry over the prospects of Mr. Advani being projected as the future Prime Minister, in the event of early elections to parliament as a consequence of the continued stalemate on the question of constituting the JPC to probe into the 2G spectrum affair.

On his part, Mr. Yeddyurappa played his cards carefully as per a well scripted plan to fight what at one time appeared to be his last ditch battle for survival. Firstly, he had prepared a long dossier on the sins of omission and commission committed by his predecessors in office, especially on the question of identification of land, which has become a hot potato at the moment; took a public stand that he had done nothing wrong, while announcing his decision to order a judicial probe into the denotification issue with a view to taking the sting out of the opposition attacks. He had also gone public in finding nothing wrong his sons getting the land.

Secondly, he took steps to mobilise the support of select religious leaders who mostly belonged to his own community lingayats to publicly plead against the change in a bid to impress that his community, which is a major community in Karnataka was backing him and would not tolerate any change. He had also herded a group of ministers and MPs to New Delhi to put pressure on the central leadership.

Thirdly and more importantly, he had also made out the case questioning the propriety of the High Command in singling him out for such a treatment, while condoning the indiscretions of others in the party. His ire particularly was on two persons, namely the General Secretary of the party, Mr. Ananth Kumar, his one time comrade in arms turned known political adversary within the party, whom however, he did not name. and on the activities of the Reddy brothers who have been openly needling him and went to extent of publicly campaigning for his ouster, obviously with the support and patronage of some Central leaders. Inherent in the criticism was the link the Reddys had with Mrs. Sushma Swaraj the Leader of the Opposition in the loksabha.

The ace up in his sleeves however was the “TINA” factor (There Is No Alternative) projection that he had made about the inevitability of his continuance in office. For all purposes, Mr. Yeddyurappa is the tallest of the party leaders in Karnataka. And none mentioned as his possible successors, including the party’s state president Mr. Eswarappa, Panchayat Raj Minister, Mr. Jagadish Shettar, Mr Sadanand Gowda, the party MP and former state chief, have the kind of the image that Mr. Yeddyurappa has built up around him and among the people. Nobody in the party has the gift of gab or gumption and oratorical skills that he has. Besides he has been only one who has toured the length and breadth of the state and has been able to build up a kind of rapport.

His political stature is not necessarily confined to BJP. It is so among all the political parties in Karnataka in general and in Congress in particular. Mr. Devegowda is the only exception. But the ageing Gowda, a former Prime Minister, is leaning more towards retirement than being politically active like Mr Yeddyurappa.

. Even his enemies have to admit ungrudgingly that Mr. Yeddyurappa had built the party brick by brick and shares a major share of the credit. The BJP has been a beneficiary of the rising anti Congress mood in the state and he has cleverly utilised.

Besides, the forthcoming elections to the grass root level democratic institutions of taluk and zilla panchayats is an avenue for testing the political waters in the rural areas. Going by the track record of panchayat elections, the verdict always goes in favour of the party in power. The Janata Dal had won when it was in power and so was the Congress when in office. The BJP is in power at the moment in Karnataka and decks are stacked in its favour. Any change of leadership at this stage may not augur well for the party’s plans to build units grass root level support.

Mr. Yeddyurappa is a stubborn and a 24 x 7 political animal like Mr. Devegowda and and is an indefatigable worker. He has some weaknesses too including the “sun stroke”, which is an occupational disease which normally affects the persons in power. He believes in ploughing lonely furrow and hardly a team man. Going by the allegations of corruption flying all around, which of course are yet to be verified, even as Mr. Yeddyurappa is pleading innocence, he and his family members appear be the victims of the money guzzling syndrome.

He is prone to get into trouble quite often and he has managed to come out of it from them, the present one being the latest one.

It is clear that Mr. Yeddyurappa dared the high command and made them relent and the explanation given by the high command reads like a pathetic story of capitulation against the regional satraps, who are going strong. The Bihar results have again proved that the regionalism is rising its head and the days of the strong regional leaders controlling the strings of power at the Centre as it used to be happen in the olden days are all set to return.

Can Mr. Yeddyurappa be wise by the reprieve he has got and put all his energy in building up the state, which has paid a heavy price for the political instability, which has been stalking Karnataka since 2004, instead of depending on the luck all the time to get out of the trouble. Only time will be able to tell.

Eom 10.00 hrs. 27.11.10.