Karnataka Congress President G Parameshwar tells Aditi Phadnis why his party wants the B S Yeddyurappa government to go.
There was a time when the Congress used to consider Karnataka a pocket borough. How long has it been out of power in Karnataka?
It has been eight and a half years now. We lost power in 2004 when S M Krishna was the chief minister, but we had a coalition government with the Dharam Singh-led Janata Dal Secular (JDS) for 18 months. The JDS pulled out from our government and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but this experiment failed as the JDS refused to yield when it was the BJP’s turn to rule.
In 2008, we got 80 Assembly seats. There were many reasons for losing power. There was a feeling the BJP had been denied a legitimate stint in government, so there was sympathy for it. Candidate selection was not done properly by our party. There was also a lot of groupism. So, we were not able to reach the halfway mark of 113. The JDS got 28 seats and independents got six. So, we could have formed a coalition government, but the high command instructed otherwise — it said the people have rejected us, so let us leave it there. But, the BJP took the six independents and formed a government. All of them were made ministers... they were given money and power.
I’m sure the Congress was not short of money…
Our past experience with the JDS was not good. After the BJP formed the government, we did not do anything for one year. But, to our surprise, we found the BJP had made three individuals engaged in illegal mining Cabinet ministers.
Surely you have no dearth of supporters, sympathisers and members in Bellary district, who are engaged in illegal mining…
If people are engaged in the mining business, it is one thing. But, when they are ministers and are engaged in illegal mining, they enjoy immunity: They can choose their own district officials, Superintendent of Police, others… they are afraid to act. So, illegal mining continued to flourish. Then, we had to intervene. We took out a 350-km padayatra that lasted 21 days. Lakh of people joined it, but the chief minister just ignored the padayatra…
Despite all this, you failed to strike any resonance with the people. You’ve lost the Panchayat and Zila Parishad (ZP) elections, by-elections… which elections have you won?
In the ZP elections, we didn’t do badly. There are 1,013 ZPs and we won 353. The BJP won 444. For a ruling government, a difference of 88 is no difference at all. We would have won 50 per cent if there had been a level playing field. As for the by-elections, there have been 21 of them till now. Except for two when the incumbents had died, the rest occurred because the BJP offered money to the Congress and JDS candidates to resign, and conducted the elections four-five months later. For an MLA, Rs 25 crore to step down is a lot of money. That is the order of money the BJP offered. Many fell for it. Fourteen Congress MLAs have resigned, causing by-elections. We managed to win only two — lost the rest.
When we studied how we lost, we found there were two main reasons: the use of official power and money. We submitted to the Election Commission papers where the government had given money to a religious trust or for work in rural areas to swing opinion in its favour. We found that just before the model code of conduct was imposed, the government had spent up to Rs 100 crore in one constituency…
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But isn’t that the job of the government — to spend money on development?
Yes, but outside budgetary allocations? We lost by small margins of five per cent and under. We felt the use of government resources for political ends was not fair.
And then, there was the issue of land scams. The government took to de-notifying land and selling it to somebody for a price. And, these persons or agencies would, in turn, sell it to industrialists or developers. There was the case of the Prerana Educational Trust, which is run by the chief minister’s immediate family. A developer gives money by cheque to the trust and gets land. There are umpteen de-notification cases where there is a direct correlation between the government’s powers of de-notification and pecuniary advantage to the chief minister’s family.
So, we reported to the Governor there was a breakdown of the official machinery — there was no development in the state of a permanent nature and widespread distress: agricultural prices were not stabilising and farmers were committing suicide because the government killed the system of giving cooperative loans.
So, you are saying Karnataka has the most corrupt government in power since India became independent, but in every election the people choose to vote for this venal government? The people of Karnataka see no reason to get angry, despite your telling them they should?
One day, the people will realise they’ve been taken for a ride — as they did in Tamil Nadu. That phase will also come to Karnataka.
And, your intervention is to petition the governor to dismiss a legitimately elected government?
No, it is an illegitimate government. On October 6 last year, 11 BJP MLAs gave a letter to the Speaker that they felt the government headed by B S Yeddyurappa was corrupt and that they didn’t want to support it. They were disqualified before a crucial confidence vote. They moved the high court, which upheld the Speaker’s decision. But the Supreme Court order says the high court ruling on their disqualification was wrong. This means the Yeddyurappa government turned into a minority government on that occasion and continues to be illegal. We are in Delhi to impress upon the Centre that it is a government that has no right to stay in power.
So, effectively the opposition to the Yeddyurappa government is from his own party?
Yes, and the current condition in Karnataka is very dangerous for democracy.