After flying below the radar for the last eight years, you can’t seem to avoid Veerappa Moily even if you want to. He is not only a general secretary in the Congress, in charge of the all-too-visible media committee, but is also the chairman of the oversight committee on OBC reservation and the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC). His literary career too is seeing a revival with his book Tembare being translated into English as Edge of Time, and a biography on him is being penned in Kannada and English.
For those who follow Karnataka politics closely, Moily’s sudden prominence after a relatively low profile is apparently in keeping with his career trajectory. Moily, born in the Dakshina Kannada district of south Karnataka, is a qualified lawyer and fought his first assembly elections from Karkala in 1974. He belongs to a numerically-weak backward community and was handpicked by then Karnataka chief minister Devraj Urs to be small-scale industries minister. He later remained minister in the Gundu Rao, Veerendra Patil and S Bangarappa ministries.
The first major hitch in his career came in 1984, when as leader of the opposition, he was accused by an independent MLA of trying to bribe Janata Party MLAs to defect to the Congress. The infamous Moily tapes surfaced soon, with then chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde having a field day, coining such sobriquets for Moily as “oily Moily”.
For eight years after that, Moily fought the stain of corruption alone, with the Congress distancing itself from him. In 1992, however, he surfaced again, and how. After the Congress high command removed S Bangarappa as chief minister, central observers Nawal Kishore Sharma and Jagannath Mishra, suggested Moily as a replacement rather than the much-fancied SM Krishna.
Moily may not have led the Congress to victory in the Assembly polls, but the state has much to thank him for, not the least of which is the Common Entrance Test (CET) for professional educational institutions in the state and the setting up of the Mangalore University.
He was also the chairman of a tax reforms commission under the SM Krishna government in Karnataka. Moily’s literary bent — he has written several novels and two books of poetry — and his background in law have stood him in good stead. Thus, in 2004, despite having lost the Lok Sabha polls from Mangalore, Moily has been steadily utilised by the UPA government and the Congress.
Under Moily, the ARC reports have been coming thick and fast, often boldly dissenting with the government: As in the report on Naxalism where its recommendation of disbanding the Salwa Judum was hailed as a great statement of human rights. Most of the other reports, as the one on police reforms, remain just that till date. The more recent report on terrorism is openly being taken with more than a pinch of salt as it was timed to match with the dilemma the UPA government is facing regarding Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil following the Delhi blasts.
Of the 13 reports to come out of the ARC, eight have been submitted to the government till now. The report on terrorism was not even part of the initial agenda of the ARC, it was submitted as part of a report on public order. Going by his previous track record, Moily may duck under the radar yet again, but at least he would have made a more distinguished mark in his recent avatar than being associated with the infamous Moily tapes.
