Enough is enough! Will someone please stop Gowda in his tracks?

Enough is enough! Will someone please stop Gowda in his tracks?
H S Balram
The Times of India

When two elephants fight it’s the grass beneath that suffers. This is precisely what’s happening in Karnataka. Throwing all norms to the winds, Deve Gowda and S M Krishna, two veterans belonging to the powerful Vokkaliga community, are engaged in shadow boxing, mudslinging, witch hunting, digging up old graves, and washing dirty linen in public. A bitter and ugly fight for political one-upmanship. Caught in the crossfire are chief minister Dharam Singh, the coalition partners, the IT industry, infrastructure projects and the people.

It all started with Gowda losing badly to a Krishna follower, Tejaswini, in the Kanakapura constituency in the last Lok Sabha elections. Krishna’s supporters moved heaven and earth to ensure that the former PM was humiliated at the hustings. Gowda, however, won the Hassan seat. When Krishna failed to win a majority for his party in the assembly elections, and no party was able to form a government on its own, Gowda cobbled together a coalition with the Congress to keep the BJP at bay. Ever since, apart from backseat driving, Gowda’s agenda has been to discredit Krishna. Nothing else appears to interest him.

He has scuttled most of the initiatives that Krishna had launched, prevented his supporters from joining the ministry, and humiliated the IT industry, who he perceived as being close to the former CM. He also convinced Sonia Gandhi into shunting Krishna out of Karnataka. In the name of being pro-rural, Gowda has been on an urban-bashing spree, ignoring protests over deteriorating infrastructure, charging the IT sector with land grabbing, questioning the viability of Metro Rail, and scoffing at public-private partnership.

Krishna too isn’t keeping quiet, though the office of Governor does not permit him. Driven to the wall, he has been slamming Gowda on every count, enraging him further. He wants to re-enter active politics, mainly to prevent Gowda from carrying on a slander campaign against him. Congressmen are confused. They realise that Gowda needs to be contained as he is eroding the base of the Congress. No one in the party other than Krishna can do that. But what if Gowda pulls his party out of the coalition? Is the Congress ready to face elections? JD(S) men too are confused. Like it or not, they have to be their master’s voice, or else they will go the way of Siddaramaiah.

The latest victim of Gowda’s ire is Infosys czar N R Narayana Murthy, who on Krishna’s request had taken over as chairman of the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BAIL). He has quit the post, anguished over the allegations made against him by the former PM and pained by Dharam Singh not coming to his rescue. Gowda wanted to know why the international airport was getting delayed in spite of Murthy heading BAIL. He ridiculed Murthy’s vision of urban reforms. He taunted him by saying that the IT czar, having travelled all over the world, should have come up with a formula to decongest Bangalore. He also accused Infosys of land grabbing.

Respected the world over as an IT icon, a humble Kannadiga who helped put Bangalore on the world IT map, one who advocates public-private participation to get things moving, and one who is ever ready to help the government, Murthy’s letter to the CM speaks of his anguish. “I am disappointed that a former PM did not accord me this basic courtesy (of speaking to me personally before going to the press). I am pained, more so, that leaders in the government, like you (Dharam Singh), did not even clarify my role in the company (BAIL) and the work that has been done. I have spent enormous amount of time and energy in interacting with the government in New Delhi and the government here to make this work. The records prove themselves’’.

It’s disgusting, say people of Karnataka. Gowda’s Krishna fixation has taken its toll on the state. The coalition government is fast losing credibility. Singh’s efforts to keep things moving will come to nought soon if he doesn’t stop Gowda from interfering. The Congress must either do some plain speaking with Gowda or break the alliance. For, its image has suffered a big dent. Murthy’s resignation is the last straw. And, Gowda will hopefully read the writing on the wall, and make amends before it is too late. At stake is Karnataka’s future and prosperity.