Aditi Phadnis: Can he come into his own?

PLAIN POLITICS

Kumaraswamy runs the government in Karnataka, but is he an able administrator?

Karnataka teeters on the verge of its worst drought since 1971, widespread economic disempowerment of the very poor, and severe farmer distress. With a serious drinking water crisis (but no shortage of food as yet) in 32 villages and five towns, this is the "worst drought in the last 36 years," Home Minister MP Prakash told the Legislative Assembly earlier this year. The memories of the last such drought are frightening""the state was hit by a shortage of both food and water.

The state government has reacted predictably, to solve a short-term crisis without considering long-term solutions, a job it appears to have left for statesmen of the future. Days after he presented the budget, where he announced a loan waiver and writing off of the interest scheme for farmers who may have taken short-term crop loans amounting up to Rs 25,000, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister B S Yediyurappa extended the scheme to more farmers, weavers and fishermen, which should cost the exchequer an additional Rs 450 crore, something that appears to have struck the finance minister only after he had finalised the budget, reducing that document to something that the state government seems to make up as it goes along.

Nowhere in the budget""or indeed subsequently""was there any mention of creating drinking water security, rainwater harvesting or incentives for these to builders (who are rapidly acquiring swathes of land in all major towns), or predatory developers and farmers buying panchayat land meant for tanks, pouring concrete over them and building on top, thus ending forever the traditional water storage system, both in urban and rural Karnataka. North Karnataka faces creeping desertification.

The drought and the macroeconomic policies of the centre have contributed to farmer distress. Co-operative sugar factories in Bidar, for instance, have stopped procuring sugarcane from farmers, citing a sugar glut in the market. What is needed is a fiat from the government, forcing factories to buy the cane at the price set earlier: Rs 1,100 per tonne. The state government is either unable to intervene or can't be bothered. Instead, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is building his image. He spends several nights a month, sharing huts of farmers as part of his gram vastavya programme, living with them, trying to make it appear he is one of them. It is another matter that earlier, bottled water and a mobile toilet used to travel with him (this is less obtrusive now). In 2006, local newspapers reported that he went to a Dalit colony near Mysore and stayed at the house of an "untouchable". But although he slept on the floor of Dalit Cheluviah's ramshackle home, he carried a Kurl-On mattress with him along with mineral water and a commode. Okay, the chief minister has a government, he has a caste but not necessarily a party. By doing all this, he could arguably create the party he needs for the next election. But what about the BJP, which is a partner in the government and has acquired the administrative wisdom of several years of central and state rule? The only BJP contribution to the government seems to be allocations in the state budget (presented three weeks ago) for religious mutts. One of the two most powerful castes in Karnataka, the Lingayats (the other being the Vokkaligas), got a budgetary outlay of Rs 10 crore for a community mutt.

And what of the Opposition, made up of experienced political men? Congress leader and former chief minister Dharam Singh lost his job largely because of a conspiracy mounted by a cabal in his own party comprising the new entrants to the Congress following Ramakrishna Hegde's death. There is no evidence that the Congress wants to recover in the state. The party never reviewed the 2004 Assembly elections debacle. Though Mallikarjun Kharge took over as president of the party 19 months ago, no executive has been named in the party, nor a thinktank created to mount coherent criticism of the state government. Delhi had to ask Kharge to visit Mangalore, torn asunder by communal riots a few weeks ago. The idea apparently did not occur to the president independently. Equally to blame is Union Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes. It is on his advice that the central party formulates policy on Karnataka. He has no small part in the directionless lethargy the Congress has sunk into in the state. Most of the top Congress office-bearers have been appointed on Fernandes's advice.

Ten days ago, the office of the Mandya District Commissioner was blockaded by local people: they wanted ration cards to be issued for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, allowing them to buy kerosene and rice at subsidised rates. The police had to be called in to protect the official. All over the state there are protests at the way ration shops are shortchanging BPL families. Not a new story in India. But in Karnataka, this has been caused by a conspiracy of the government and the Opposition. The government and administration run by HD Kumaraswamy and the BJP are to blame for the sorry state of Karnataka""but so is the Congress.