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HUBLI, 1st July 2011
If the redoubtable former Prime Minister Devegowda had carved out a niche for the facile manner in which he would doze off at public functions, the Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr Yeddyurappa appears to have perfected the art of putting his foot into the mouth at the drop of a hat as it were and land himself in avoidable controversies.
The latest in the series has been his has been his antics to draw the famous place of religious worship, the Dharamasthala as a panacea for his running battle of attrition with his onetime colleague turned political betenoire Mr Kumaraswamy, the former Chief Minister
Dharmasthala in Mangalore district of Karnataka is a renowned dispute resolution centre, where the parties come and swear by the name of Lord Manjunatha to sort out the problems.
Mr Yeddyurappa, it has been seen has a penchant for swearing in the name of God for whatever he asserted he would do. During the loksabha elections he had sworn in the name of God to say that he would not allow his son to contest from his home district. Ultimately, his son Raghavendra did contest and win the election.
For quite sometime, both Mr Yeddyurappa and Mr Kumaraswamy have been trading charges of involvement in illegal land dealings in their determination to expose each other and the slanging match is on.
It is not clear who gave Mr Yeddyurappa the idea that he should go to Dharmasthala to settle the quarrel once for all. But all of a sudden he surprised everybody by his public assertion challenging Mr Kumaraswamy to come to Dharmasthala for “vow before God” on the allegations being made.
Before once could dismiss his observations as a slip of the tongue, from which he suffers quite often, Mr Yeddyurappa followed it up with a government paid advertisement published on the front pages of almost all the leading newspapers reiterating his challenge.
And when Mr Kumaraswamy accepted the challenge and expressed his readiness to take oath as suggested that the trouble began for Mr Yeddyurappa. Several religious heads including Pejawar counselled him against dragging Dharamathala in the political battle and also Mr Gadkari, the national president of BJP also followed suit to which Mr Yeddyurappa demurred but Kumaraswamy would not relent.
As a result, the much hyped programme scheduled for 27th June at Dharmasthala ended on a note of whimper. Both visited the pilgrim centre as scheduled but a different time so that they would not come across each other. Mr Yeddyurappa, who was the first to visit the temple in morning, said that he had just prayed for the welfare of the state. On the other hand, Mr Kumaraswamy who visited the place around noon said that he reiterated before the deity that whatever he had said in his charges was true.
Ultimately the pilgrim centre remained untainted by political canker, Mr Kumaraswamy had the last laugh. And Yeddyurappa squirmed that charges made by his rival went unrebutted. And he had asked for it.
Eom 18.19hrs. 01.07.11
