Politics in Karnataka has touched an all-time low with the manner in which the tumult of the last few days culminated in a vote of confidence passed without a ballot in five minutes amidst scenes of unprecedented violence and entry of police into the state assembly. Whatever be the final outcome, there is no doubt that the state has been set back on several counts. The first and the most immediate casualty is political stability. The government, which has remained in power for two years with the help of independent members and defections, now has to contend with rebels from within the ruling BJP who have refused to budge despite pressures to return to the fold. It is highly doubtful if under such conditions the state, once considered a leader in many respects, will be able to witness either growth or social stability. Karnataka under Devaraj Urs earned the admiration of the rest of the country for initiating social engineering and thereby avoiding the caste conflict that has marked the politics of north Indian states. With generous support from the Centre, which set up premier educational institutions and public sector units, the state forged ahead both in terms of industrial and skills development. The latter laid the foundations of the information-technology (IT) revolution that was to follow and earned Bangalore the appellation of the country’s “Silicon plateau”.
In contrast to this distinctive past, the state has appeared to flounder over the last six years, which have seen three governments. The drought in 2003 showed up the lopsided development in the state, which has some of the most arid and backward districts in the country. Instead of using the urban dynamism of Bangalore to garner resources for development, the state appears to have lost even its IT momentum. Most large software companies have turned to other states, notably Tamil Nadu, to expand operations in the absence of available land in and around Bangalore. The contrast between the two neighbouring states is telling. Tamil Nadu has not only forged ahead with industrial development powered by its automobile and electronics clusters, it has simultaneously closed the IT gap and scored major gains in human development. Karnataka has been blighted by the quality of its politics. The victory of the BJP in the last assembly elections, as also the periodic crises that the state government has faced, has been attributed first to the financial clout of the mining lobby and thereafter the tussle among politicians over the spoils of office. The political turmoil has been singularly issueless even as a state once known for the absence of caste conflict has lapsed into the politics of caste and money power. The political turmoil comes at a time when nature has been particularly bountiful. The whole of peninsular India has received very good rains, enabling it to relegate inter-state water disputes at least temporarily to memory. This should have offered a golden opportunity to take things forward. Instead, Karnataka’s politics seems determined to pull it down. The backward districts remain so and Bangalore sinks deeper in its traffic jams, the mismanagement of its municipal finances preventing it from using the resources which are there on the ground to build its infrastructure.
