Shekhar Gupta: Return of the BJP's 'Iron Men'

Come to Ballari to see the BJP's starkest compromise with organised political crime and corruption yet because of its desperation to win Karnataka

Karnataka, 2018, doesn’t render itself to a classical ‘Writings On The Wall’ excursion. In all my decades of watching elections, I have never seen one with so little on display: No posters, banners, flags, hoardings or cut-outs — until you approach Ballari (earlier Bellary) on its north-eastern border with Andhra Pradesh, after driving through more than 2,000 km of the poll-bound state, along the highways and interiors.

A narrow, but beautifully metal-topped (as most roads in Karnataka tend to be) road leads to Molakalmuru village. There is a central paramilitary forces checkpost, keeping a watch at the turning. They aren’t