Mathihalli Madan Mohan
Senior Journalist and Columnist
Hubli
For Churumuri (Attn Mr Krishna Prasad)
HUBLI, Oct 21, 2011
It is now crystal clear that fate of Yeddyrurappa in BJP is practically sealed following his implication in the illegal mining case by the Karnataka Lokayukta and his arrest in connection with land scam in other case.
This could be clearly discerned from what the BJP supremo L K Advani said that Nagpur the other day and followed by the elucidation of the party stand on fighting corruption by the national General Secretary of the party subsequently.
The BJPs national leadership wants to shun the erstwhile Chief Minster of Karnataka, till recently the southern face of the party because of his tainted image due to charges of corruptions hurled at him and cases booked against him. At present Yeddyurappa is in judicial custody in connection with denotification of land filed by one Sirajin Basha in Special Lokayukta Court
The stand of the national leadership is expected to have deeper implications on the functioning of the party and party government in Karnataka. Firstly Yeddyurappa who is now in jail awaiting bail, may not be seen during the forthcoming tour of Advani in Karnataka. Secondly, it will exacerbate the inner party conflict between pro and anti Yeddurappa factions with the legislature party, though the Yeddyurappa faction had an upper hand in the selection of the new Chief Minister who replaced Yeddyurappa two months ago. And the anti Yeddyurappa faction may try to increase the pressure for insulating the functioning of the government in the coming days from the overt or covert influence of the former Chief Minister to avert a possible backlash in the hosting, which may come earlier than scheduled going by the political flux.
The interesting question would be how Yeddyurappa and his group would react? The options open for Yeddyurappa are not only limited but bristle with complications too? If Yeddyurappa takes it in his stride, by remaining in the background putting all his time and energy in fighting the cases filed against him against dabbling in politics , he may have to be a political nobody till the next parliament election, which the national BJP wants to fight on the plank of corruption. Being a twetyhour hour 24/7 politician, he is not expected to be away from political activities. In the alternative, if he has to fight, he could do so only by going out of the party. Here he faces two formidable problems. First would the people listen to man whose face is tainted by charges of corruption and secondly how many of his followers and legislators are willing to take risk and follow him . And the track record in Karnataka is quite clear. Nobody including the redoubtable late Devaraj Urs, former Chief Minister Bangarappa or former Pradesh congress Chief K H Patil has been successful in mowing the lonely political furrow.
It may be mentioned here that when national leadership wanted Yeddyurappa to step down the moment it was known that he had been implicated in the illegal mining scam submitted by the then Lokayukta Mr. Santos Hegde more than two months ago, Yeddyurappa was initially unwilling to obliged. He hedged and dillydallied for a few days and had go give in when the high command refused to relent. Before stepping down, he cocked a snook at the leadership by getting his own protégé Sadanand Gowda elected as his successor in a show of strength, albeit by a slender margin in a show of strength much to the chagrin of the party high command.
And this new government headed by Yeddyurppas protégé has caused embarrassment to visiting Advani much bigger than what a lowly district party chief in Madhya Pradesh who distributed cash to journalists for covering the leader’s visit.
In a move more seen as a subtle effort to bail out Yeddyurappa from the present predicament , the state government suddenly discovered that it needs some clarifications from the Lokayukta before taking any action on the illegal mining report of the Lokayukta and tossed the ball back to the court of Lokayukta.
What made the move suspicious has been the fact there is no Lokayukta at the moment in Karnataka to furnish whatever clarifications it the state government wants expeditiously. For the post has been vacant ever since new LOkayukta Mr. Justice Shivaraj Patil who succeeded Santosh Hegde two months ago, put in his papers following the report which alleged that his wife had got a house in site allotted in violation of rules.. And the process of selecting new Lokayukta who has to be necessarily a former Supreme Court Judge has not yet begun.
Karnataka has two Upalokayukta of which one of them has also resigned. Since the powers, functions and eligibility criteria vastly differ there is no provision under Lokayukta Act to enable the Upa lokayukta to discharge the functions of Lokayukta in the latter’s absence.
The State Government, it may be noted here three months under the Karnataka Lokayukta Act to accept ,or reject the report, failing which , the Lokayukta gets the authority to do so. Two months of the three month deadline is already over and the deadline is approaching fast.
With a view to foreclose any opportunity for the Lokayukta to take any action after the expiry of the deadline, the state government has sought to use the continued vacancy of the post of Lokayukta to buy as much time as possible
That the state government is hesitating to take action against the persons responsible for illegal mining scam involving thousands of crores of rupees flies in the face Advani, who is vigorously campaigning for stronger measures to check corruption. The interesting point would be whether the national BJP leader would take his own party government to task, while castigating the Centre for its lethargic attitude.
Eom 21.10.11 5.43 pm
