Bengaluru: Expressing disappointment at the Karnataka government’s failure to respond to unstarred questions before it, assembly Speaker U.T. Khader adjourned the House Monday. Only 90 responses were filed for a total of 245 questions.
This, along with rising instances of indiscipline from legislators, suggests that a leadership tussle within the Congress-led government is affecting governance.
“The assembly cannot run without a quorum, but ministers also don’t come on time. I have warned them four times, but I see no improvement,” Khader said. “This has not only caused serious embarrassment to the government but has also undermined the rights of the legislators and the dignity of the House.”
The Speaker’s comments are fresh ammunition for the Opposition to corner Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Furthermore, appearing to be acknowledging the problems within his council, Siddaramaiah instructed his ministers to respond to all unstarred questions soon.
As House Leader, the buck stops with Siddaramaiah. However, he has purportedly been losing control over his ministers, legislators, and even officials, especially as allegations of corruption and a “racket of transfer of government postings” pile up against him.
ThePrint contacted Naseer Ahmed, the political secretary of Siddaramaiah, and Minister of Health and Family Welfare of Karnataka Dinesh Gundu Rao for comment. This report will be updated if and when they respond.
A. Narayana, a Bengaluru-based political analyst and faculty at the Azim Premji University, however, said that though there have been some challenges in some government departments, such as home affairs, most of the issues are more political than administrative. One would have to compare with previous governments to examine if governance under Siddaramaiah have gotten better or worse, he added.
Corruption and crumbling infrastructure in Bengaluru are mainstays, irrespective of the party in power, he said, adding that misgovernance cannot be pinned on just this government.
“Governance failure would actually mean something really serious. Karnataka’s growth rate—if it suffers drastically—we can say that ‘this is the case’. If employees are not paid on time or there is a financial crisis, which becomes unmanageable, it can be considered a collapse of governance. But this is not seen in Karnataka,” Narayana said.
‘Wreaking havoc’
Earlier this week, R. Ashoka, Leader of Opposition, cited a letter written by Harsha Gupta, Principal Secretary to the Government, Health and Family Welfare Department, in the state assembly. Gupta’s letter flagged instances of inefficiency and called for the department’s restructuring.
What Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said in response to the letter going public did not inspire confidence either. “Just because he (Gupta) said it, does it mean the entire system is faulty? It only means that some rectification and action are required. That’s all,” Rao said.
A glance at recent incidents sheds light on a festering problem.
In August last year, Siddaramaiah took Social Welfare Minister H.C. Mahadevappa to task for failing to finalise internal reservation within the Scheduled Caste communities, according to people aware of the developments. The CM reportedly said that he would have to do it himself if the latter was not interested.
In late February, hundreds of thousands of job aspirants took to the streets of Dharwad to protest, demanding that the government fill up nearly 200,000 vacancies in various departments.
In January, Karnataka’s Minister for Energy K.J. George threatened to quit the cabinet after alleged interference by Siddaramaiah’s son, Yathindra.
During the budget session, the home minister turned down a request from one Congress MLA to transfer a police officer from Bengaluru to Dharwad, expressing helplessness to make such decisions in “certain districts”.
BJP leader Ashoka too raised the issue, indicating that Yathindra was calling the shots at the behest of his chief minister father. He said Yathindra had made the “transfer racket his main occupation”—a reference to a Karnataka High Court observation that there are better things to do than looking into the transfer of officials within the government.
“On one side, a treasury that’s completely bankrupt, on the other, a chair that’s constantly wobbling—caught between these two, the Chief Minister @siddaramaiah of ‘Hello Appa’ fame, weakened and cornered, has made the transfer racket his main occupation. Noticing this, the honourable High Court has slapped the Chief Ministers by saying they have better work to do than transferring government employees—it’s a mirror held up to how much misgovernance and the transfer mafia are wreaking havoc in the state….,” Ashoka said in a post Friday.
To make matters worse, the Karnataka Contractors Association recently levelled serious allegations: nearly 40-50 percent of commissions or bribes are demanded for awarding works or clearing payments.
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‘CM has to control MLAs’
In June last year, B.R. Patil, a senior Congress leader and MLA who earlier served as a political secretary to Siddaramaiah, alleged that houses under Rajiv Gandhi housing schemes were not being allocated without bribes being paid.
Raju Kage, another Congress MLA, backed Patil’s allegations.
Channagiri Congress MLA Shivaganga Basavaraju also said that although thousands of crores of projects were approved under Siddaramaiah, works were not being undertaken unless bribes were paid.
He even chided Yathindra for the latter’s statements that Congress was a “high command party”, not like the “Mysore Kingdom”, where children were considered natural successors.
Earlier this week, two cabinet ministers in the Siddaramaiah government—S.S. Mallikarjun and Zameer Ahmed Khan—had a public spat over the candidature for the Davangere South bypolls.
Mallikarjun wants the ticket for his son, Samarth, while Khan is advocating for a Muslim candidate to fill the seat after the death of veteran Congress leader Shamnur Shivashankarappa.
Mallikarjun went so far as to casually refer to Khan, as well as sitting Congress MLC Abdul Jabbar, a ticket aspirant, as “jokers” for repeatedly making statements on the issue.
On Friday, Samarth filed his nomination for the seat, despite Siddaramaiah being strongly against giving the ticket to another family member of the Shamnur household.
There have also been instances where members of the Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar camps have made differing public statements on various issues, including leadership change, cabinet reshuffle, and others. There have also been multiple dinner meetings between ministers, MLAs, and others, and the party has been unable to control them.
“The responsibility to manage legislators rests with the CM as he is the legislative party leader,” Shivakumar said Thursday, in a comment aimed at Siddaramaiah.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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None can beat Peddaramaiah, the basket case chief moron of Karnataka.