Politics in Karnataka temporarily left its own arena and sought to use the religious space to settle scores, with poor results. Things took a new turn recently when former chief minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader, H D Kumaraswamy, made a startling allegation that Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa had sent a personal emissary to him offering truce in return for getting his work done through government expeditiously. Instead of simply refuting the allegation, the chief minister brought the Gods into the conflict by challenging Mr Kumaraswamy to utter his allegation under oath before the presiding deity of Dharmasthala, Lord Manjunatha, while he himself would repeat his denial in the same manner. This is because the customary belief is that anyone uttering falsehood before the deity will come to grief. Things went a bit awry for Mr Yeddyurappa thereafter. His opponent promptly took up the challenge, and what is more, the heads of several prominent religious centres asked the politicians to keep their fight in the secular arena and not disturb the peaceful and religious atmosphere of the holy places. Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari joined the religious heads in saying that the temporal and religious worlds should not be mixed up. Mr Yeddyurappa had no choice but to back out. The final bout happened on Monday when Mr Kumaraswamy came to Dharmasthala and repeated his allegation and Mr Yeddyurappa offered his prayers and failed to repeat his denial, further pulling down his low credibility.
The chief minister is right in claiming that under him the state is peaceful and its finances are in reasonable shape. The latter is unusual since after the last round of Assembly elections most states are claiming to be broke. The state has been fortunate to have received good rains in the last few years. However, it is not enough that Karnataka is pulling along; it must seek to regain the pre-eminence it once enjoyed. Most projects grandly announced at the last global investors’ meet have so far failed to come to fruition. Besides, civic conditions in Bangalore, on which the state depends heavily for state domestic product and revenue, are going from bad to worse. Many grand plans announced by the municipal corporation, notably signal-free arterial roads, have had to be put on hold owing to an acute cash shortage. Not only is its revenue income, according to one estimate, running at about half its potential, the state government has till now given no budgetary assistance this year, against a promise of Rs 300 crore. A municipality like Bangalore, with booming real estate, should be rolling in cash but a complicit civic bureaucracy, beholden to developers who keep corporators happy, has made a mockery of the self-assessment system for paying property taxes. Consequently, the Bangalore municipality is unable to rise to the challenge it faces. To negotiate cumbersome forms, property owners have perforce to take the help of touts, which results in lower collection. Thus, Bangalore misses out on its due, pulling Karnataka down with it.
