Lost Expressway 2: Bangalore’s coalition mantra: blackmail

LOST EXPRESSWAY, PART-2
Bangalore’s coalition mantra: blackmail
Politics: Cong lets Gowda hold city to ransom. ‘He talks to Madam. We don’t want polls’: CM
The Indian Express

The Bangalore-Mysore expressway. BANGALORE, OCTOBER 23: This may be a city of tech frontiers but you can gauge a leader’s perceived importance in more traditional ways: by the crowd at the gate, in the driveway, in the verandah, in the waiting room, in the drawing room—and finally outside his private chambers.

Right now, there is no one in Bangalore who draws a greater crowd of assistance seekers, cronies and well wishers than former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.

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At his two-storey house on a narrow, uneven lane in the outer suburb of Padmanabhanagar, they start gathering from 6 am. Security is minimal, and by mid morning, there are hordes of visitors hanging around on Gowda’s stairwells, verandah, sitting room and compound.

‘‘Are you seeing this?’’ Gowda asks with a heavy sigh. ‘‘These are my people. This is my life.’’ There are times when it irks him—especially when they manage to fill his inner sanctum before his morning bath and pooja: both are often delayed by upto two hours.

‘‘Maybe troublesome, but haven’t you seen how he loves it?’’ asks a Congress minister requesting anonymity. ‘‘He cannot do without it I say, for him holding such durbars is governance.’’

Populism as governance, allegations weak in fact but repeated often enough and cleverly timed diatribes—whether against new economy stars like Infosys Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy or infrastructure builders like Ashok Kheny—are now the Janata Dal supremo’s stock in trade.

He does that because the Congress freely lets him even use government machinery to turn the screws on his foes, as he did after falling out at some point with Bangalore-Mysore expressway builder Kheny.

Despite being Public Works Minister when the project got all its clearances, Karnataka Chief Minister Dharam Singh, officials point out, allowed his entire administration to do a volte face at the urging of Gowda, who fiercely denies any whispers of opposing the project because his family has land in its path (see box).

Today, Singh is reluctant to say much. ‘‘It (the expressway) is not a political matter,’’ he insists. ‘‘We are not opposed to it—either the expressway or the townships.’’

So why then did his government accuse Kheny of ‘‘fraud and misrepresentation’’ with no evidence? Earlier this year, it had to endure the ignominy of a court order to prosecute its chief secretary for essentially lying to the court.

PART 1

I will parade myself on a donkey if you prove I have 1 mm of land: Gowda



This is what H D Deve Gowda told The Indian Express:
• On hurdles he’s created for the Bangalore-Mysore expressway: That man (Ashok Kheny) came to me. I told him to get out of here. Whose land is that? Does he think he can carry on a real-estate business, cheat poor farmers and get away? Let him (Kheny) start tomorrow, today...but I will not allow real-estate business (townships). Why has be not started construction?
• On being told that construction was on (37 km of the 64-km first phase is complete in patches): ‘‘That’s only a kilometre or so, a showpiece to convince the so-called intellectuals.’’
• On Gowda’s family owning property in the expressway path: ‘‘I will cut my throat, my children’s throat, my family’s throat if I am involved. I will parade myself on a donkey if it can be proved that I own a millimetre of land there...I am also an engineer and administrator. I have had some exposure, is it not, in running a country?’’