Taking the people for a ride for the sake of votes !
by GABRIEL VAZ
Daijiworld Media Network
BANGALORE, MAR 31: Is the B S Yeddyurappa-led BJP regime fooling the people? The answer is a resounding yes, going by the state government’s actions in the recent past.
The Yeddyurappa regime will be completing two years in power in Karnataka in May. The chief minister, who is also the state’s finance minister, had presented two budgets as chief minister cum finance minister and another three during his earlier stint as deputy chief minister cum finance minister in the JD(S)-BJP coalition rule.
All in all, Yeddyurappa has already come out with five budgets in a row – though there was a brief gap when the state was under President’s Rule and the then Union finance minister P Chidambaram had to present an interim budget in parliament. Though Yeddyurappa started off without having any experience whatsoever in running the government, he cannot be termed a novice being a seasoned politician in the opposition. So, Yeddyurappa cannot come out with lame excuses.
As everybody knows, BJP came to power mainly because of the public outrage over the failure of the JD(S) to keep its promise on transfer of power and the consequent sympathy factor in favour of Yeddyurappa and his saffron brigade. The systematic poaching of influential leaders from Congress and JD(S) by BJP was another contributory factor. The controversial ``Operation Kamala” to entice MLAs elected on Congress and JD(S) tickets to resign their seats and contest on BJP’s Lotus symbol, which ensured that the ruling party earned a clear majority of its own in the state assembly, and the other consequent developments are still fresh in public mind.
In addition, the BJP made some grandiose promises during the 2008 assembly polls to woo different sections of voters – the major ones being the free supply of power to irrigation pumpsets of farmers, quality power supply to all sections of energy consumers, enhancing power generation by at least 5,000 MW in five years and supply of 20 kgs of rice at Rs 2 a kg to the below poverty line poorer sections. And, the people know what happened to these ``tall” promises!
When the entire world was celebrating 100 years of International Women’s Day and the country was dragging its feet on passing the Constitutional Amendment Bill for the empowerment of women by granting 33% reservation in parliament and state legislatures, Yeddyurappa came out with a radical promise of granting 50% reservation to women in the Grama Panchayats in the state’s budget proposals for the year 2010-11. He even declared that the government would amend the Panchayat Raj Act to ensure that women got 50% reservation in the local bodies.
And soon after the curtailment of the budget session of the state legislature on account of the elections to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Paliike on March 28, the chief minister beat a hasty retreat by stating that 50% reservation to women in PR bodies was not possible immediately. He has not said when it will be done either.
Though the ruling party, especially the Karnataka Milk Federation Chairman Gali Somashekara Reddy, the youngest brother of the all powerful Bellary mining lord ministers – Gali Janardhana Reddy and Gali Karunakara Reddy, had been orchestrating a campaign for increasing the prices of Nandini Milk at least by Rs 2 a litre for almost two months on the plea that the milk production costs especially the price of fodder had gone up causing huge losses to the farmers, Yeddyurappa stalled the move.
With the Supreme Court and Karnataka High Court refusing to accede to the state government’s various ruses to delay the BBMP polls and finally forcing the government’s hands in completing the poll process by March, the decision on increasing Nandini milk prices was shelved because the possible adverse impact on the ruling party’s poll prospects if the Nandini milk prices were hiked on the eve of BBMP elections.
Now that the BBMP elections have been completed, with results expected on April 5, Yeddyurappa has already indicated that the government would give the green signal to KMF to go ahead with increasing Nandini milk prices. Though a time-frame is not announced, the KMF can be expected to come with the hike soon as no less a person than the chief minister has claimed that the increase in milk prices was ``inevitable.”
Yet the same Yeddyurappa had declined to accept a proposal for hiking Nandini milk prices submitted by JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda’s son H D Revanna, when he was the KMF chairman, last year. It is a different matter that Revanna was unseated through political machinations and Somashekara Reddy was installed in his place. The moot point is why did the government refused to hike the milk prices when the proposal was sent to the government almost a year ago?
With protests from the urban people unlikely to make much of a difference after the completion of the voting in BBMP polls, the government seems to be counting on wooing the rural voters by pointing out that the increase of Rs 2 a litre of milk (it is not known whether the increase will be more or less, as yet anyway) would be passed on to the farmers, which would come handy for the ruling party in the Grama Panchayat polls likely to be held in April-May.
Also, with BBMP polls on the cards, the Yeddyurappa regime purchased 1,000 MW of high cost energy from neighbouring states and independent power producers during the month of March and the people of Bangalore were promised virtually 24-hour power supply unlike the rural areas which had to suffer a minimum of 6-hour load-shedding in most areas. The duration of load-shedding was as high as 10 to 12 hours in some of vulnerable rural areas. The farmers had to make do with three-phase power supply for IP sets only during the nights and students preparing for the annual examinations were promised single-phase power from 7 pm to 10 pm for studies. Incidentally, the chief minister had announced that the government was inviting short-term tenders for purchasing 650 MW of high cost energy for the month of April, when the demand for energy was likely to shoot up as summer hots up.
However, the chief minister has now indicated that load-shedding has become inevitable all over the state because of widening gap between demand and supply. There is no word on the proposal for buying 650 MW of high cost energy through a short-term tender. Obviously, if the State Election Commission finally decides to go ahead with the Grama Panchayat polls by the end of May, the people can expect the government to suddenly revive the proposal for buying high cost energy from neighbouring states and independent power producers through a short-term tender.
These are some of the most glaring recent examples of government’s flip-flops, which are clearly politically motivated. It is for the people to ascertain, analyse and decide for themselves rather than allowing the powers-that-be to take them for a ride after winning elections.