Shivani Kava

Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi

Udupi, May 7: Former chief minister Dr M Veerappa Moily is one of the most respected leaders in the Congress. A Lok Sabha MP representing Chikkaballapur and an advocate by profession, Moily was also the former petroleum and energy minister in the UPA government, and is considered as a close aide of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. He is the man
credited with preparing the party's manifesto for this year's Karnataka elections. But he is in the news for as many bad reasons as good. In Karkala particularly, his native, he was in the eye of the storm after the party denied the ticket to Muniyal Uday Kumar Shetty, whose supporters alleged that Moily had a key role to play in it. At the same time, it was he who quelled the rebellion and put the Karkala Congress on track again.

Daijiworld caught up with the senior politician for an exclusive interview.

Excerpts:

DW: Being the former chief minister of Karnataka, you are still rooted to Karkala. Do you see any changes that have taken place over the period of time?

Moily: I have seen a lot of dreams here being elected six consecutive times from 1972. The evidence for people of Karkala being so trustworthy and loyal and having secular mindset is electing me in every election. My dream was to make Karkala an ideal place to live. When former PM late Indira Gandhi contested the by-elections in Chikkamagaluru, the voters who cast majority of votes were from Karkala. My progress from a legislator to chief minister took place in Karkala itself. Hence, I am indebted to this place. Industrial estates were built by us during that time and around 60 high schools and few colleges at Hebri, Karkala were built by our government. Also, we built around 4 hospitals in every hobli. We also build bridges over rivers so that people could travel safely. Polytechniques came up eventually. Around 1.5 lac homeless people got homes because of our government. Karkala also has a government hospital with around 100 bed accommodation. While I was the minister of state, I released around Rs 1 crore as CSR and later from central government, U T Khadar, the then health minister, released around Rs 6 crore for the hospital.

People wanted to make Hebri a taluk which was approved by our CM Siddaramaiah. Hence, there has been progress all over in Karkala. But I am not yet done as I have an unfinished agenda which Gopal Bhandary has worked upon. Even drinking water extraction plant in Karkala has been the same from long time which has to become a bigger project in future. In the past five years, Karkala had to see more development as Siddaramaiah government had spent around Rs 2 to 3.5 crore in all other Vidhan Sabha territories but not in Karkala. All pending plans will be worked upon as Congress is anyways going to come to power. If Gopal Bhandary becomes minister, all my unfulfilled dreams will be fulfilled by him.

DW: Once the tickets were distributed, everybody’s eyes were on Karkala as there was a kind of difference among people. You took the responsibility of solving the differences. How did this happen? What is your take on this?

Moily: Samudra mathan (referring to mythology) has to happen in the sea itself. Senior Congress leader Oscar Fernandes suggested that my son should contest the elections which I initially thought upon. But when I came here, already two candidates were in the race. Harsha backed off and Gopal Bhandary lost by 4,000 votes. Uday Shetty has done Mtech coming from a poor family. I am very proud of him. Hence, after a discussion, we sorted out and came to a conclusion that Gopal Bhandary would be contesting the election. As far as Uday Shettyis concerned, I must say that he has a bright future and we have promised him to extend complete support.

DW: Please let us know about your dreams and contributions in that Congress’ state election manifesto.

Moily: I am the president of the manifesto committee so it is natural that my dreams had to be in it. Normally, we talk of Cauvery, Krishna, and Godavari rivers, but what has happened is around 1,000-2,000 TMC of water flows into the sea from small rivers. If we observe closely, we will not get 2,000 TMC of water if we amalgamate rivers like Cauvery and others. In this part, one month after monsoon there is no water to drink. People of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada are hard workers but there is no water for agriculture.

Hence, I thought of coming up with ‘Pashchima Vahini’ where we build dams to store river water that flows to sea. That water will be provided to all fields. Hence, this dream will come true due to the grace of voters.

DW: Modi visited Mangaluru recently. Do you think ‘Modi Mogic’ can create a miracle in Karkala?

Moily: Yes. In 2014, people were quite impressed by Modi’s speeches and oratory skills. Where ever Modi went, parliament seats fell to BJP’s hands. But now, people are losing faith in Modi. Now even in North India, BJP has lost 13 seats including seats in Rajasthan or Uttar Pradesh. In fact, Uttar Pradesh has no deputy chief minister’s post. You might have heard that the administration over there is so bad that many people are dying as there are no proper hospital facilities. Even the Dalits are against BJP and Modi. Also their support to rapists is being hated by people. When a BJP MLA raped a 16-year-old girl, Modi did not react to it which is very sad. Also when a 8-year-old at Jammu & Kashmir was raped, no proper action was taken which resulted in women going against Modi. Similarly, banks are being looted by people like Nirav Modi. Due to GST and demonetisation, the general public and the economy of the country has suffered a lot. Scams have increased. Talking of NPA, it was 2% earlier and now it has increased to 10%. Petrol and gas cylinder rates have increased. While I was the petroleum minister, I gave subsidy from the government to oil companies so that gas cylinder was available below Rs 300, but now it has increased to around Rs 700. BJP had told that they would deposit Rs 15 lac of black money in every citizen’s account. But they could not give even Rs 10. BJP president Amit Shah later admitted that it was just an election gimmick.

DW: What would you like to say to the people of Karkala?

Moily: Karkala is the place that has helped me grow from a legislator to chief minister. I got the opportunity of handling five ministries in the central government and all this could not have happened without people’s support. I am grateful to them.