Karnataka CM at Congress' mercy, Kannadigas at God's
Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, who recently took the oath of office, has said that he is at the mercy of the Congress when it comes to discharging his duties because the people of the state have not given him a mandate to rule. This has left everyone wondering exactly whose mercy the people of the state have now been left to.
CM Kumaraswamy: It’s a fact in Karnataka, I am at mercy of Congress#ITVideoMore videos: https://t.co/Nounxo6IKQ pic.twitter.com/BhB4FygM3R
— India Today (@IndiaToday) May 28, 2018
Kumaraswamy has gone on to say that for every decision he needs to take for the welfare of the people, he is dependent on the Congress because it is the grand old party which gave him the chief minister's chair.
This is just as bizarre as it could possibly get in an electoral democracy.
The incumbent chief minister hails from the Janata Dal (Secular), a party that stood third in the three-cornered Karnataka election with 37 seats in a 244-member Assembly. In a bid to prevent the BJP, which bagged 104 seats, from coming to power, the JD(S) entered a post-poll alliance with the Congress, a party that stood second in the electoral contest with 78 seats. While the JD(S) and Congress have named their coming together a "post-poll alliance", the swiftness with which this alliance was announced as soon as the results were declared hints at a pre-poll understanding between the two.
That the two parties seemingly had a deal to form a government, while they kept exchanging barbs during the election campaign proves a clear attempt to confuse the people, whom they were fighting to govern. While this was bad enough, deserting the very people in whose name the high-octane election was contested is probably the worst thing to have happened to democracy.
It is a sad day to be Kannadigas, who would not know whom to turn to in case they are denied basic civic or constitutional rights.
The formation of the council of ministers has been delayed in the state because the two parties — the Congress and the JD(S) — are busy negotiating portfolios.
The only two people to have been sworn in so far are Kumaraswamy as chief minister and Congress G Parameshwara as deputy chief minister.
The bone of contention is believed to be the finance ministry, which both parties want to keep with themselves. This raises an obvious question about why the ministry is so keenly wanted.
Speculations suggest that the two parties want the ministry to be able to claim maximum credit for the farm loan waiver (as and when it is announced) that the JD(S) promised during its electoral campaign. Media reports also claim that the Congress wants the revenue generating portfolios, including the finance ministry, to compensate for the loss of the chief minister's chair.
While the JD(S) and Congress are busy playing musical chairs over portfolios, it is the people of the state who have been at the mercy of God.
Kumaraswamy has meanwhile asked farmers to put their suicide bids on hold while he is negotiating cabinet berths because he would be announcing the promised loan waiver within a week's time.
He has also promised to relinquish the chief minister's chair in case the promise on loan waiver is not fulfilled. But how does one forget that Kumaraswamy is the same person who promised not to join hands with the Congress (and the BJP) if he wasn't given a clear mandate?
As many as 3,515 farmers in the state killed themselves between April 2013 and November 2017. About 2,500 of these suicides were due to drought and crop failure. These figures have been released by the state agriculture department itself.
In its 2013 Economic Survey, the Congress government listed the problems afflicting agriculture in Karnataka. The issues included over-dependence on the monsoon, fragmentation of land, deteriorating soil health, lack of market information and low penetration of technology. Four years later, in its February survey, the government added more problems to the list: low public investment, inefficient use of water resources, environmental degradation and rising cost of production.
In 2018, in coalition with the JD(S), the Congress can add one more issue to the list — the inability to reach a consensus on portfolio distribution.
Addressing farm distress is just one aspect of governance, there are many more issues that the parties promised to resolve.
Having come to power, they are only bothered about the promises made to each other to stay in power.