THE Congress Party in Karnataka is playing dirty, if not crass. Addicted to power, they are unable to stay out of it for too long. So they are trying all the tricks in the trade and beyond to disturb and unseat the democratically elected BJP government. Right from day one, the party has been kicking up one row after another, by its tamed proxies. Now, in the latest, the Congressmen are protesting corruption in the state . Even by its humour standards, one cannot help but smirk. Congress the fountain head of corruption, anguished by corruption, and sleeping it out on the floor of the assembly, literally.
The office of the Governor has always been a situation of convenience for the Congress. Whenever it is in power at the centre, the Congress appoints the most pliable crony Congressmen as Governors in opposition ruled states. Here it is H R Bharadwaj. As Union Minister he was such an embarrassment to the Prime Minister and a pitiable laughing stock for the countrymen, that the party high command found him unfit for a cabinet berth. So he was dumped on the Raj Bhavan. Still, he is too impatient to prove his worth. Understandable. He is so disturbed by the corruption in Karnataka that he has come all the way to Delhi to brief the President (of India not the Congress Party) about it.
This on the one hand. On the other, the party has given the cue to the unit in Maharashtra to raise the bogey of Belgam. How and why it suddenly became an issue for the Chief Minister is not clear. Chauvinistic issues in India have always resulted in blood bath and mayhem. And it is a clever move because the BJP is in opposition in Maharashtra in alliance with Shiv Sena and in Karnataka it is in power. The Congress expects the BJP to be caught in the cleft stick and trip. Ever since India’s independence and the reorganization of states on linguistic basis, there have been problems between states over territories. They need not always be projected as India-Pakistan or India-China border issues. It is important that Belgam receives development. It is not important if it gets it under Maharashtra or Karnataka. And if some population is being made to learn Kannada instead of Marathi or vice versa, it is not in any way going to diminish the population or culture of either. Belgam is a calculated issue, deliberately being foisted by the Maharashtra government, with orchestration being done from Delhi, with the only objective of pin pricking the Karnataka government. It is not out of place here to point out that during the reorganization of the states, RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri Guruji Golwalkar repeatedly warned and pleaded against making language the point of demarcation in geography. It would not work, he had said. He proved prophetic, as in so many other issues.
The behaviour of the Congress MLAs in Karnataka has already crossed the line in decent democracy. While the allegedly ‘honest’ prime minister will not soil his hands in dirty politics, the political leadership in the Congress, adept at playing a double game has maintained silence. A damning silence. If the opposition in India chooses, it can imitate the scene in Parliament which will result in the sacking of at least a dozen ministers. Eating, sleeping and pitching tents within the state assembly, the Congress MLAs have shown what they think of the revered places in democracy. The elected representatives are presenting a caricature of themselves, reducing themselves to the level of street thugs who forcibly occupy premises.
The Congress Party is demanding a CBI inquiry into allegations of illegal mining. Going by the track record of the CBI under the UPA, would any opposition party trust its probe with the Central agency? And what about the 1500 mining leases allotted under Madhu Koda, the notorious Jharkhand independent MLA propped up as Chief Minister by the Congress? The CBI has been blatantly acting on orders of the Congress, booking and cancelling cases against political leaders in the country according to their current value for the Congress majority in Parliament. If they are opposing the UPA, they become liable for prosecution for tax evasion, disproportionate assets; and if they support the government, they get a clean chit.
The Lok Ayukta is already seized of the matter in Karnataka. It should be allowed to do its function without the bullying by the Congress. It is forgetting that the men they are accusing of corruption today were their thick friends till the other day. Once in a while the Congress Party also should look within their cupboards and backyards to see how much muck they are hiding. We are not promoting the philosophy that he who throws stone first against sin should not be a sinner. Then there would be no stone coming forth, in politics. But there are decent and legitimate ways of protesting. And Congress Party would do well to remember that others also can play the dirty game they are enacting now.
