by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
Bengaluru : Within hours of taking oath, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Thursday said he will soon waive off crop loans of farmers across the state in line with BJP election pledge.
“I had promised the farmers that I would waive off crop loans up to Rs 1 lakh soon after I become the Chief Minister. I have already conveyed to the Chief Secretary (K. Ratna Prabha) to give me the details and we will announce the waiver within two days,” Yeddyurappa told the media here.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto for the Assembly election promised to waive off all farmers’ loans up to Rs 1 lakh from nationalised and cooperative banks if the party formed a government.
The party said it will support about 20 lakh small and marginal dry land farmers in the state through a direct income support of Rs 10,000 and ensure that farmers receive 1.5 times the cost of production as Minimum Support Price (MSP).
The manifesto also promised to set aside Rs 5,000 crore “Raitha Bandhu Market Intervention Fund” to support farmers during price fluctuations and that it will introduce a “Raitha Bandhu” department under the Chief Minister’s Office to monitor the farmers’ schemes.
One thousand farmers from the state will also be allowed each year to travel to countries like Israel and China to study the best practices in agriculture under the “Chief Minister’s Fellowship for Agriculture”, the party had said prior to the election.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Amid high political drama, the Supreme Court early on Thursday didn’t stop B.S. Yeddyurappa from taking oath as Karnataka’s new Chief Minister but the legal battle for the BJP leader and his party is far from over.
After a rare midnight hearing that ran for hours, the court refused to stay the oath taking ceremony as was sought in a joint petition by the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).
“In case he is given oath in the meantime, that shall be subject to further orders of this Court and final outcome of the writ petition (by the Congress and JD-S),” said the three-judge bench, recording the proceedings of the night in the packed Room No.6.
Presiding the proceedings were Justices A.K. Sikri, S.A. Bobde and Ashok Bhushan.
Yeddyruppa took oath as planned but on Friday at 10.30 a.m. when the apex court hears the matter again, he will have to produce the two letters dated May 15 and 16 he has written to Governor Vajubhai Vala to stake his claim for government formation.
The BJP leader is said to have claimed a majority support in the letters.
But the question is how?
The Congress and JD-S had challenged Karnataka Governor Vala’s invitation to Yeddyurappa to form the government despite the BJP falling short of legislative numbers to claim majority in the 222-member Assembly. Voting was not held in two of the 224 constituencies on May 12.
The BJP won 104, the Congress 78 and the JD-S 37. Any party or grouping needs 112 members to claim majority as per the present strength of the House. The Congress and JD-S didn’t have a pre-poll alliance but cobbled together a grouping after the results threw a hung Assembly.
Together, and with a support of one BSP member and an independent, the Congress and JD-S make 117.
The Governor still invited Yeddyurappa and gave him 15 days of time to prove majority.
The Congress lashed out at the Governor’s move calling it “partisan and biased” and rushed to the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing that commenced at 2.20 a.m. and concluded at 5.30 in the morning.
During the hearing, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Congress, argued that the Governor must have invited the post-poll coalition to form government as no single party secured majority.
He questioned the 15-day time given to Yeddyurappa for proving majority, saying the Supreme Court had earlier said that “to give such time is to encourage the constitutional sin of poaching”.
In his argument that ran for more than an hour, Singhvi also cited instances of Meghalaya, Manipur, Goa, Delhi, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir as precedents of post-poll alliances being invited to form governments.
“There is only one way a party which got 104 will get 113… I heard he asked for seven days (time to prove majority) but the Governor gave 15. Elementary common sense and arithmetic go against this kind of giving of time,” Singhvi said. “Question is whether it is valid, fair or capricious.”
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, said everything was in the realm of “speculation” as the entire matter was still “a grey area”.
Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for the BJP, questioned the urgency of the matter to hear it at midnight as if “heavens will fall if a person is sworn in the morning”.
Justice Sikri asked him on what basis was his side claiming majority in the House. “It is not a fluid situation. In view of this arithmetic, on what basis you claim majority.”
Venugopal intervened: “Everything is reversible. What is the great loss by waiting for 15 days?”
Justice Bobde countered: “That is the other point. Why wait for 15 days?”
Venugopal said it was the Governor’s decision.
The court observed that it was “preposterous” to argue that before MLAs take oath they were not amenable to anti-defection law.
“It means open invitation to horse-trading. It is preposterous (to argue) that before he (an elected MLA) takes oath as member all this (floor crossing) is allowed,” Justice Sikri told the Attorney General.
“In a case like this where the opposite side is showing 117 MLAs support, how you will have 112,” Justice Sikri asked, adjourning the hearing till Friday morning.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Saeed Naqvi,
It was what a film director would have described as a perfect take. “You are a beginner,” he said, grinding his teeth in simulated anger. “These are your days to learn.” A measured pause; he then emoted. “And you are insulting a former Prime Minister, a senior-most leader?”
This was Narendra Modi chastising Rahul Gandhi, the Congress President. In the course of a fierce three-way election campaign, Rahul Gandhi, prompted by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, described the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) as the B team of the Sangh Parivar. Modi tore into Rahul.
The manner in which Modi leapt to Dewe Gowda’s defence raised eyebrows. The outburst cast the JD-S as a party which had the BJP’s sympathies.
If this creeping murmur reached Muslim enclaves which were once Congress vote banks, a section of the Muslim vote which would otherwise have travelled towards Gowda, would check itself. This would be ironical given that the “S” in JD-S stands for secular.
After the demolition of the Babari Masjid in 1992, the disenchanted Muslim vote, walking out of the Congress fold, was waylaid by regional parties. In Karnataka, this vote took respite under the JD-S umbrella.
In these circumstances, is the Congress delusion, of being the “only” national alternative, sustainable when a pan-Indian quantity like Muslims is permanently averse to it in the states? To overtly woo Muslims, Congress leadership has been advised, risks loss of Hindu vote in direct proportion to the saffron in the air. Congress avionics are now conditioned entirely by these weather conditions. Such abject dependence on the weather will have its logic. There will be occasion when the flight will not take off at all.
Now, the post-Babari shortfall has to be made up by holding on assiduously to the Hindu vote. This requires the kind of Hindu cohesion the Congress is not geared for. If it plugs upper caste haemorrhage, the lower castes flow out into regional receptacles.
It cannot do what the BJP does: Pose the Muslim as the unstated other for Hindu consolidation. The Congress simply steers clear of the Muslim like one would steer clear of trouble. It differentiates itself from the BJP, though. It has a distinct self-image: It’s the party of “good Hindus”. It does not endorse the lumpenisation associated with “street” Hindutva or the BJP.
It is a difficult pirouette. How do you project yourself as a squeaky clean Hindu without criticising excesses in the name of the cow, love jehad, Muslim youth languishing in jails without trial. National monuments like the Red Fort will now be handed to cement magnates for repair and maintenance and so on.
All right, the BJP erects its “hard” Hindu edifice “othering” the Muslims. How does the Congress delineate its “soft” Hindu outlines? Is there clarity or is it all hazy and vague?
Modi chastised Rahul for bad-mouthing Gowda. Rahul found it so important to come clean on the subject that he agreed to give his very first newspaper interview since he became Congress President in December to Karnataka’s Deccan Herald group of newspapers.
He said he was not attacking Gowda at all; he was only inviting Gowda to explicitly declare whether he was on “that side or this side”. An epic ideological battle was on between the Congress and the BJP. Choose one.
What was the urgency for him to seek this clarification? In fact, it is all the more puzzling because Modi’s intervention was designed to soften Gowda towards the BJP — it was like an olive branch to the JD-S. If amplified, this would have the effect of the Muslim vote shifting away from the JD-S towards the Congress. Why would Rahul need to neutralise conditions for this possible outcome? Well, it was a gamble. Rahul needs an outright victory with a safe margin. In a house of 224 he needs well in excess of 113 seats. Muslim support might help.
Conventional wisdom in Bengaluru gives Congress 95 to 100; BJP 85 to 90 and JD-S 35 to 40 in a hung house. This is dicey — for the Congress. Deve Gowda, as kingmaker will immolate himself but not make Siddaramaiah the Chief Minister.
The moment Rahul looks for an alternative to Siddaramaiah in order to keep Gowda in good humour, a new game will have begun.
If Congress wins outright, the credit must go to Siddaramaiah, whatever self-serving message the Congress coterie in New Delhi coaxes out of the result. In a state historically dominated by Vokkaligas and Lingayats, Siddaramaiah has brought under one umbrella the upwardly mobile Kuruba (Shepherd) community as one powerful group. By accepting a demand by a section of the Lingayat community (the late Gauri Lankesh, for instance) that they are “outside” the Hindu fold, he has created mild disruption in the Veer Shaivite, Lingayat ranks. BJP’s Yeddyurappa, a Lingayat, will face that music.
By replicating, Jayalalithaa’s canteens, selling subsidised rice and pulling out every implement in the populist tool kit, Siddaramaiah has cast a wide net to ensnare the voter. At a time of Rahul’s frenetic temple-hopping, Siddaramaiah’s irreligious, Lohiaite persona is refreshing.
What profit for Siddaramaiah to remain affiliated to the Congress if he sees regional actors play a greater role in post-2019 calculations? Who knows, he may like to consolidate his regional base. Siddaramaiah is not the only one who is basically averse for a ride in a messy coalition just months before 2019. Suppose Modi calculates that Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh can be bunched with 2019 to his advantage? That is why any long-term player will not be enthusiastic about the unstable Karnataka gaddi. But the eager bearer son of Deve Gowda, H.D. Kumaraswamy, is aching to ascend the throne even for a few months with BJP support, Gowda’s denials notwithstanding.
From the Bengaluru throne, the Gowdas, BJP, everybody will then train their guns on Siddaramaiah. It is Catch 22 for all.
(A senior commentator on political and diplomatic affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com. The views expressed are personal.)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Chamarajanagar (Karnataka) : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday lamented that all development in Karnataka has been “blocked” by the ruling Congress due to its obsession with family politics.
“Where there is Congress, all roads that lead to development are blocked. There is only family politics, corruption and lack of harmony,” Modi told a BJP rally in Santhemarahalli village, about 170 km south of Bengaluru.
Launching the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) election campaign in the district for the upcoming Assembly election, Modi addressed hundreds of people, including party cadres.
“We hear in Delhi that there is a BJP wave in Karnataka. But as I see it, it’s not just a wave but a storm,” thundered Modi.
The Prime Minister’s 40-minute speech in Hindi was simultaneously translated into Kannada, a first since his visits to the southern state over the past few months, so as to connect with the people in the local language.
Law and order in Karnataka has collapsed under Congress rule, Modi said.
“When the Lokayukta in the state is not safe, how can one expect the common people to be safe under the Congress government?”
Karnataka’s anti-graft ombudsman Justice P. Vishwanatha Shetty was stabbed at his office by a man in the state capital on March 7.
“For the Congress, it has always been about family politics. But for us (BJP), it is about people’s politics. People of the state will decide which kind of politics they will choose (in the upcoming election),” Modi said.
He appealed to the people to vote for politics of honesty.
“Let this vote strengthen our commitment to end corruption. This vote of yours will not just choose your MLA, but will decide the future of the state.
“(BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate) B.S. Yeddyurappa is the hope for Karnataka and he will soon be chosen as the Chief Minister,” asserted Modi.
Modi will also address rallies on Tuesday in Udupi and Belagavi districts.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions, Politics
Nowhera Shaik (centre)
By Saeed Naqvi,
On May 15, when the Karnataka election results are announced, and the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) find themselves in an almighty scrum bargaining for power, a certain mysterious lady will be watching the proceedings from her suite in the country’s most luxurious, seven-star Leela hotel on Bengaluru’s old airport road.
The hijab clad, 45-year-old, Nowhera Shaik, President of the All India Mahila (Women’s) Empowerment Party (MEP), is fielding candidates for all the 224 assembly seats. It is a mistake to regard MEP as a woman-only party. “A woman has a brother, father, son,” she says. Moreover, there is no taboo on men seeking MEP tickets.
Her hijab is a far cry from a docile acceptance of male oppression. It is an assertion of feminine independence. She is CEO of the Hyderabad-based Heera Group of companies, dealing with a wide range of commodities across the globe — building material, gold and diamonds. The last mentioned happens to be something of an obsession with her. Heera, name of her company, means diamond. Her election symbol is the Diamond. Who knows, her name Nowhera may be a contortion of Nav Heera, which means “novel diamond”.
In the Sherlock Holmes classic, mystery deepens when the dog “does not” bark. In Shaik’s case the deathly silence of politicians and the media at the high voltage election debut is as intriguing.
There are all sorts of ironies involved. The latest Congress policy towards Muslims is based on the appraisal that the BJP’s shrill allegation, that the party appeases Muslims, has begun to affect the majority community. The Hindu increasingly sees the Congress as a “Muslim Party”. How should a party which is greedy for Hindu as well as Muslim votes cope with the predicament?
It was to meet this situation that the new “cloak and dagger” policy towards Muslims was enunciated. The party will distance itself from Muslims to prevent a haemorrhage of Hindu votes. But by hint and gesture the Muslim voter will be persuaded that this “distancing” is only a tactic in the Muslim interest. The Muslim must not leap into the Congress lap in full public view, but, with expert slyness, sneak towards the Congress polling agent.
The game acquires a touch of situation comedy when an audacious, hijab-wearing lady, with wealth beyond measure, a credible image of a philanthropist, jumps into the electoral fray. The Congress cannot throw up its hands and scream, “Help, help, she is nibbling away at Muslim pockets in a close election where even a few hundred votes matter.”
Nor can the BJP be ecstatic: “Welcome dear Begum Sahiba; go, damage the Congress.”
Unobtrusively, she just may end up marginally harming the Congress. If each one of her 224 candidates is pillowed with cash, the law of averages may return two, three or five winners. This may give her a hand to play in post-poll poker. Her ambitions for 2019 leave one gasping.
If the Congress loses the Karnataka election, it will be difficult for the party to escape the label the opposition is in gleeful readiness to paste on the Congress forehead: P2, a party confined to Punjab and Puducherry.
While nobody is conceding outright victory to the Congress, punters are willing to give it the largest single party status and therefore hope for coming state elections.
A representative group of eight senior journalists and political activists (including two having deep links with Communists and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, RSS) pondered over the election scene in my Bengaluru drawing room. There was no great difference of opinion on the way the cookie was expected to crumble on May 15. The Congress, BJP and Deve Gowda led-JD-S were expected to poll 95 to 100, 85 to 95 and 35 to 40 seats, respectively. A hung house will enable the JD-S to play a leading role in the post-poll poker.
Let us pick up the narrative in 2010 when Siddaramaiah, then in the opposition, chastised the infamous Reddy Brothers (more popularly known in Karnataka as the Bellary mining mafia) on the floor of the state Assembly.
The Reddys promptly dared him to repeat his charges in Bellary where, they threatened, he “would be finished”. Siddaramaiah took up the challenge. He undertook a 200-mile padyatra to Bellary. The voter, desperately searching for something he can respect, spotted a touch of heroism in Siddaramaiah.
There are now three principal caste groups (hundreds of smaller ones) in the contest:
Siddaramaiah with his diligently consolidated Kuruba caste; Deve Gowda, something of a Vokkaliga stalwart and B.S. Yedurappa, the tallest Lingayat who had almost been ruled out by the BJP because of a jail term for massive corruption. His powerful caste Lingayat has trumped all negative considerations.
Siddaramaiah is not a classical Congressman. Rather, his background should be a cause for concern for the Congress: There is in his DNA a trace of Lohia Socialist. This is what kept him in the JD-S for 35 years. But his parting with Deve Gowda was so bitter that theirs is now a blood feud. Deve Gowda would jump in front of a train rather than allow Siddaramaiah a second term in Bengaluru.
Yedurappa poses the Lingayat challenge. This has propelled Siddaramaiah towards an audacious gamble. An old demand by a section of Lingayats seeking a status outside the Hindu structure has been dusted up by him. Yes, he says, Lingayats will be outside the Hindu fold. This is far-reaching, tearing into Veer Shaivaite-Lingayat divide.
Trust a Lohiaite to have played this hand. There are echoes of V.P. Singh’s implementation of the Mandal Commission report. V.P. Singh himself was not a beneficiary of his machinations. But the post-Mandal tumult brought to the fore Mayawati, Mulayam Singh, Lalu Prasad, Rath yatra to Ayodhya and so much mayhem. Let’s see how Siddaramaiah’s gamble plays itself out.
(A senior commentator on political and diplomatic affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com. The views expressed are personal.)
—IANS
