Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa’s days appear to be numbered irrespective of whatever counter-strategies and theatricals he and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may choose to engage in to challenge the decision of state Governor H R Bharadwaj to allow two lawyers to initiate prosecution against him on grounds of corruption and criminal misconduct. Mr Bharadwaj, who has been a senior advocate at the Supreme Court and law minister at the Centre for many years, knows his rule book and appears to have acted with considerable care and due process. There are precedents for such action by other governors vis-à-vis other chief ministers. Hence it is not surprising that the Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram, himself a lawyer of no mean standing, has declared that the governor has acted in accordance with the law. So, this is not a litigation that a trial court or high court will be able to dismiss summarily. The second, and perhaps the more damaging sleight of hand that Mr Yeddyurappa has been rendered, is not by his enemies but by his own BJP national President Nitin Gadkari. For an RSS appointee (the organisation stands for the moral regeneration of the country) to say that one of his party leaders has acted immorally and improperly though legally, cannot be more damning.
Mr Bharadwaj appears to be on firm ground because of the documented details, which the two lawyers have amassed, of preferential allotment and denotification of land in favour of Mr Yeddyurappa’s sons, close relations and political followers under his discretionary quota. The loss to the exchequer over 13 land transactions has been computed by the governor at Rs 465 crore, with the pecuniary gain to the chief minister’s relatives and supporters put at Rs 190 crore. Mr Bharadwaj also appears to have given the chief minister and his administration enough time to reply by first seeking to examine the relevant files and requesting photocopies. The first reaction of the state BJP was to call a bandh on Saturday, a move that was seen as improper for a ruling party and criticised by wide sections of public opinion. Mr Yeddyurappa’s longer-term counter-strategy is to start a parallel investigation which seeks to establish that previous chief ministers have also acted in a similar manner. To his misfortune, the Karnataka High Court has put a temporary stop to this process. Mr Yeddyurappa’s predecessors may well be guilty of similar misconduct, but two wrongs do not make a right. Moreover, the scale of misconduct is clearly different. The circumspection and restraint of earlier chief ministers had kept them out of harm’s way. The BJP may well be right in claiming that the governor, a former UPA minister, is engaged in an act of political vendetta, but the chief minister appears to have given the governor an opportunity to do so on a platter. With the mood currently prevailing in the country, there is bound to be popular support for any action against corruption in high places.
