Yeddiyurappa, our CM

Finally our CM Yeddiyurappa managed to survive yet another coup. Is it the gods he bribed that worked, or is it his shrewdness, or is it the money? When the whole episode, which the media blew out, is considered, one has to understand what exactly happened before judging what is right or wrong. Has he done anything wrong, or was it just another fairy tale created by the media for its survival. Here I’m just trying to go through a journey on his political stint.

When the world is growing in a fast pace in terms of economy and technology, we are drawn backward by emotions. It is not a secret that he came to power with large chunk of cash being turned into votes, which even other parties tried, though could never match it. But above that, it was the caste and religion that presided over realities. Long back he had a chance, which was overturned by the betrayal of times by H.D. Kumarasawamy. But that was yet another crucial blessing in disguise that helped him see his flag flutter high. Since then, power mongers had been trying to replace him.

When the Reddy brothers wanted to save their skin, they felt that the only way was to pull him down. They had an impression that they can be on the driver’s seat since they kept money flowing, having the mines under their kitty. But their calculations went wrong when they realized that if they don’t toe the line they’ll be exposed. Yeddy could control the Reddys by the very fact that if the government doesn’t survive it’ll pave way for the end of Reddy brothers’ dynasty.

The next major attack he had to face was when many of the ministers revolted against him. H.D. Kumaraswamy tried his best to fish in troubled waters. Meanwhile the sleeping dynastic party had to take all the beatings, before they could even wake up, as they were falsely accused of pulling the strings. Of course it was a dream of any Congress minister to pull the BJP down so that they can taste the loot. But the high command was wise enough to realize that it’ll only turn the crowd against them, and hence they played it safe. When all these things were happening, governor Bharadwaj too played his part, for which the reason is not sure, whether it’s in terms of the situation, or if it was the congress blood that flows in his veins. Anyway Yeddy’s tears, may it be crocodile or real, melted the governor’s heart.

This time again, the shrewdness of Yeddy was well awake. He moved swiftly to make sure that all those ministers are shown their way out in a matter of no time. The speaker disqualified them in the most mysterious way. But here the court too was right in declaring that the speaker was right in his decision to disqualify the ministers.

Meanwhile crores of rupees were flowing through various channels to keep the chairs from falling. One would wonder where all these cash came from. Well, the answer lies, I guess, in the mining industry and the land dealings. Skeletons started stumbling out day by day. Media tried its best to prove themselves smart, but in the assembly the credits went to the congress and JDS. Of course, JDS did their part too of bringing out facts every other day. And that was about the land dealings that took place over the years under Yeddy in favor of his family, the pace in which the speaker acted on the dissidents to keep the CM’s chair intact.

Now, looking into the matters, on the previous instance, was the speaker wrong in disqualifying the dissidents? No, I don’t think he was wrong. He did it as per the law, and it was rightly upheld by the high court too. What the speaker did was wrong on independents, but he was right on his decisions about ousting the BJP MLAs who petitioned the governor against CM. Anyone from within the party, if submits a letter against the party leader, he attracts disqualification, unless there is enough number of detractors along with him. And though speaker was wrong in disqualifying independents, his decision about the dissidents from the party saved Yeddy’s government. Even if he’s proven wrong about the independents Yeddy’s government won’t shake as he will still enjoy the wafer thin majority. His shrewdness, or maybe any of his advisors’, helped him once again.

Coming to the land deals, almost every day, news came out of lands being de-notified by him to favor his children and aides. A large chunk of Karnataka was de-notified in a blink of an eye. Legally speaking he has done nothing wrong. Just as with the disqualifications, land deals too are not at all done illegally. CM has the power to override any rules which he rightly used. So terming it illegal is totally wrong.

Now, if one has to think, it can be right or it can be wrong based on what weighs more, legal or ethical. Legally speaking whatever has happened is not wrong. But ethically or morally speaking it stands no ground for being termed right. On speaker’s decision, it is not at all ethical to take such a decision within such a short span of time, that too when the whole episode was based on that. No one can ever say what happened is right, unless they are blinded by partiality.
And speaking about land deals, though CM acted well within his rights, it was not all right in the real sense to de-notify lands to favor his family. There are many people even without a place to stay. When there are homeless people around he made sure his children get more and more and more. Firms were floated and papers were signed within days. If this happened in case of developments works, Bangalore would have been number one in the world for sure. If they were homeless, then there is nothing wrong in doing so. At the same time the crores that flew to their accounts is mind boggling. When I was a kid every rupee counted. Then it turned to hundreds, and then thousands, and lakhs and crores. Time has come that our politicians look at crores like peanuts. One has to keep in mind that it’s no theirs, but they live on public money.

And to top everything is our CM’s temple hopping. When the state is running short of funds, he keeps donating tax payers money to temples. There is nothing wrong in donating, as far as it’s from his pocket. We pay tax not to build temples, but to develop the state. Religion should be one’s personal belief, not at the cost of someone else’s sweat.

It’s unfortunate to have a CM who doesn’t trust in himself but astrologers. It was better to hand over the CM chair to his astrologers for they do a better job. It was so disgusting to hear that in this era of technology, and Bangalore being the IT hub, the gates of Vidhan Soudha was closed because someone said it was not good for the government.

And at last, his craving for power by hook or crook leaves some doubts over. Is it because he feels that his deeds will come to light and he will have to face it if he loses power, or is it because he needs more and more money before he leaves so that he gets back with interest how much he invested to become CM? A bleak possibility can’t be ruled out of him thinking that he needs time to do something for the state, because if so he would have done something for the state already. But so for all he has done was nothing other than advertising himself with his smiling photos.

To sum it up, he must have been well aware of what he was doing for the very reason why he took off the power of lokayukta to prosecute ministers. He is making sure he is on the safer side.