Populism Alone Won’t Do, Time Yeddyurappa Got Cracking

by Gabriel Vaz
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore (GA)

Bangalore, May 30: Ironical as it may seem, Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa will be launching 25 new buses under Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation’s (BMTC) novel initiative of catering mainly to the poor slum localities in the city and 10 new populist schemes aimed at poor to mark the first anniversary of his BJP Government in the state as if to signal his regime’s priorities.

The justification given by Transport Minister R Ashok for BMTC’s new transport service, named after former prime minister and saffron mascot A B Vajpayee as 'Atal Sarige' at 50% of the ordinary fare to the economically weaker sections, is: "The rich and affluent have air-conditioned Volvo buses while the middle classes have Suvarna service. We want to offer cheap service to cater to the poor.’’

And Women and Child Development Minister P M Narendraswamy has come out with his own recipe for wooing women by announcing 'Suraksha Yojane' to help them fight atrocities against them and provide for rehabilitation of the poor women subjected vicious acid and fire attacks.

 While nobody can or should crib about the pro-poor schemes sought to be implemented by the government, the underlying message that is sought to be conveyed by the Yeddyurappa regime is that it cares little about the niceties like chalking out the finer details, obtaining proper budgetary allocations or necessary financial approvals. More importantly, a grand celebration on the government’s completion of one year in office provides the ideal platform for the ruling party to derive the maximum mileage free of cost just a couple of months ahead of the all important elections to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the five by-elections to the assembly constituencies.

Ashok’s Atal Sarige or Narendraswamy’s Suraksha Yojane are the latest two examples. But from Bhyagyalakshmi scheme for the poor girl child, distribution of bicycles to rural poor girls and boys studying in eighth standard, Sandhya Suraksha, Arogya Kavacha and many more similar populist programmes and sops-concessions-budgetary allocations to various smaller castes, communities and temples along with extension of the scheme for providing subsidised agricultural loans at 3% rate of interest to farmers from cooperative institutions to even the nationalised banks, supply of subsidised fertilizers and agricultural seeds, free power to irrigation pumpsets of farmers, incentives for boosting dryland and organic farming,  a special cash incentive of Rs 2 a litre for milk farmers, study tours of farmers to China are among the several prominent features of Yeddyurappa regime. He also enhanced the retirement age of government servants to 60 and enhanced their salaries and dearness allowances besides increasing the upper age limit for recruitments in government service in addition to lifting the ban on fresh recruitments. Higher budgetary allocations for welfare schemes for minorities, backward classes, scheduled castes and tribes besides separate allocations for the redressal of regional imbalance as recommened by Dr D M Nanjundappa panel, creation of half a dozen universities are the hallmarks of the government.

Evidently, Yeddyurappa should win hands down if a chief minister’s popularity or performance is to be judged on the basis of benefits accruing to the people either in the form of cash or kind as it can safely be estimated that at least a fifth of the state’s total population or their families have gained in some form or other. But hardly anybody among the ministers has made a mark through their performance.

That, perhaps, explains why despite all the negative media coverage over the much-criticised 'Operation Lotus' at improving the ruling party’s strength in the 224-member assembly from 110 or three short of a clear majority to 115 by enticing MLAs elected on Congress or JD (S) tickets to resign and contest again on BJP symbol, the series of church attacks in Mangalore, Udupi, Chikmagalur, Bangalore and other places for almost a month in September last by Bajrang Dal, Sri Ram Sene, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Sangh Parivar outfits and the subsequent moral policing and bashing of pub-going or jeans-wearing women or those talking to boys belonging to minority communities in the coastal region as also in other parts of Karnataka did not seriously dent the government’s image, and BJP was triumphant both in the assembly by-polls, council elections and lok sabha elections. In fact, BJP not only improved its tally but increased its popular vote-share.

But can implementation of populist programmes alone is enough the judge a government’s performance? If that were so, all political parties would surely have no hesitation to raid the treasury and tax-payer’s money to boost their prospects to stay in power and forget about development. So, why should Yeddyurappa make a song and dance about "Development, Development and Development alone is my Government’s goal and mantra?’’ Or, why should he harp on fulfilling most of the promises made in BJP’s election manifesto within the first year itself and, to be more precise, claim credit for 'implementing 90% of poll promises within 100 days of assuming power?’’  No Government can afford to ignore any section of society, be they minorities, backward classes and dalits and pander only to one section, caste, community or religion.

Both Yeddyurappa and BJP can justifiably claim credit for implementing 'most' of the promises in the manifesto. But the most glaring omission is the failure to distribute 25 kgs of rice or other foodgrains per month at Rs 2 a kg to BPL families and free power to IP sets of farmers.  While Yeddyurappa has chosen to remain silent on the failure to keep the Rs 2 a kg rice promise, it must be admitted that the government did take a cabinet decision on the free power to IP sets without ensuring its availability. Little wonder, therefore, that even domestic consumers, especially in rural areas – let alone farmers and their IP sets -- were deprived of power for hours together across the state. The frequent somersaults on load-shedding and even power cuts by energy minister K S Eshwarappa had become a cruel joke on energy consumers. Also, the government has done precious little in providing unemployment allowance to the jobless or in launching the skill development programme.

On the infrastructure front, however, the Yeddyurappa regime has taken several major decisions and unveiled projects. If all the projects to augment the power generating capacity bear fruit, they should be able to add substantial capacity addition in the coming years and may possibly surpass the election manifesto promise of creating 5,000 mw of additional power generating capacity in five years. Setting up a mega pit-head power generation plant in the coal-rich Chattisgarh or a thermal plant at Kudathini in Bijapur district enjoying ultra-mega power project status, enhancing the capacities of the Bellary super thermal power plant or the Raichur thermal plant besides setting up another major project at Yermaras in Raichur or the more recent launching of the Gundia hydro-electric project to name some of the important ones on the anvil involve huge investment and long gestation period. The completion of these projects should surely help the state to reach a position of being surplus in power in the coming years.

An ambitious drive to give a fillip to development of infrastructure facilities in Bangalore and other urban as well as rural areas, ensure air and road connectivity to all districts besides taking concrete steps for dispersal of industries in tier-2 and tier-3 cities and backward regions are also on the anvil. True, work on metro rail project now underway in the city has been dragging on since many years and might overshoot its scheduled target for completion. Also, the proposals to implement mono rail system to improve the urban transport infrastructure in important cities like Mysore and Mangalore have remained only on paper. These and many other similar initiatives need to be kickstarted and followed-up on a war footing, if the state has to really progress and prosper to its pre-eminent position.

Of course, it will for these initiatives to bear fruit and provide tangible results in view of the long gestation period.  Toning up administration, good governance, weeding out corruption and inefficiency and making the government more responsive to the people are things that cannot wait. There can be no excuses if the government fails to deliver results. The sooner Yeddyurappa gets cracking, the better it is not only for him but also the state. It is time he learnt that populism alone does not make a good and model chief minister.