The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : A year that saw a sea change in politics

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Karnataka

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A year that saw a sea change in politics

Bangalore Bureau

Attacks on prayer halls, power shortage bedevil Government

BJP ends domination of Congress and the Janata Parivar
The year saw the deepening hold of real estate and mining lobby on political economy

Bangalore: The year 2008 marked a watershed in the political history of the State.

The long dominance of centrist parties such as the Congress and Janata Parivar was broken by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that came to power on its own, winning 110 seats in the 224-member Assembly in the May 2008 elections. For the party, it was the realisation of a goal that it set itself in 1991 when with 28 per cent vote share in the Lok Sabha elections it embarked on its quest to make Karnataka the springboard of its expansion in the South.

The BJP won the elections on the plank of development and the promise of good governance. The theme of “the politics of betrayal” by the Janata Dal (Secular) remained the leit motif of the campaign, obscuring its ideological anchor of Hindutva.

Yet, within the first 100 days of its administration, the fragile communal climate in the State was vitiated by a series of attack across the State on Christian churches and institutions. The response of the State Government did little to assuage the feelings of insecurity and alienation amongst minority groups. The leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other outfits of the Sangh Parivar justified the attacks as a reaction to so-called forcible conversions by Christian missionaries, and Chief Minister B.S Yedyurappa even offered to probe the source of funds for such “forcible conversions.”

All too quickly forgotten in the tumult of subsequent events were two tragic incidents in the early days of the government. The first was a firing on farmers agitating against the delay in the supply of fertilizers resulting in the death of two farmers. The second was the mysterious disappearance and subsequent death by suicide of Padmapriya, the young wife of BJP MLA Raghupathi Bhat. The secrecy with which the case was handled gave room for many suspicions.

‘Operation Kamala’

One of the first political projects taken up by the BJP was to secure its majority in the Legislative Assembly. It unabashedly encouraged defections on the promise of political positions through a manoeuvre that was colourfully christened “Operation Kamala”. Seven prominent leaders from the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress joined the BJP and were all rewarded with either ministerial posts or other positions. The project partially paid off as all the five successful BJP candidates in the December byelections to eight Assembly constituencies were “Operation Kamala” defectors.

Economic front

The year 2008 saw the deepening hold of the real estate and mining lobby on the political economy of the State, the full import of which is yet to be understood. The powerful lobbies that represent these sectors have fully enmeshed with State politics, primarily as funders during elections and as power-brokers in times of political instability.

The two investigations into the murky workings of these businesses that are characterised by legal violations of all kinds have only uncovered the topsoil of their extensive hold. Both the A.T. Ramaswamy Legislature Committee that looked into encroachment of government lands in and around Bangalore, and the Lokayukta-led probe into the mining sector are unfortunately not yet accessible to the public.

As the New Year dawns, the Government has many promises to keep. While the free power supply scheme began for irrigation pumpsets this year, severe shortage of power has assumed crisis proportions, especially in the rural areas where 12 hours of load shedding is the norm. In the meanwhile, ambitious schemes such as the Bhagyalakshmi need to be streamlined as there has been a drastic fall in the number of beneficiaries.

The economic slowdown and the looming spectre of recession are already hitting the export sector in this State which leads in Information Technology exports. The government will need to address the recessionary impact that is likely to intensify in 2009.

This is necessary not only from the point of view of financial planning, but to also ensure that economic crisis is not used by vested interest groups to further polarise society.

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