Offstumped – Commentary on Indian Politics

If you could name one defining issue for the upcoming Karnataka Polls, what would it be ?

Before we get to some observations on the sideshow that played out on Raisina Hill this weekend.?

Was this the most inconsequential cabinet reshuffle by a lame duck Prime Minister in what is left of his tenure. Perhaps when on life support a little fresh blood can do no harm. The reshuffle is significant more for who was not in it than those who made it. First if anyone noticed Sachin Pilot was given the short shrift. Well the reasons must be quite obvious for the late Rajesh Pilot was the lone voice of independence in a Congress mired deep in sycophancy. Second the reshuffle also tells us something about Rahul Gandhi. If he lacks the humility to serve as a Minister under Manmohan to tell us what kind of Administrator he would make, one can only imagine the arrogance with which he expects the rest of us to serve his interests if god forbid he were to become Prime Minister.

Coming back to the Karnataka Polls, so what would be the singlemost defining issue for this election.

In Offstumped’s view it? would be the issue of greed and the dark shadow it cast on governance. To refresh everyone’s memory a chronology of Offtumped posts on this saga

Sept 27th Call Gowda?s Bluff

Oct 4th Kumaraswamy threatens elections

Oct 4th Gowda?s Swiss Challenge

Oct 5th A Gowda Son set

Oct 28th The fault line has shifted South of the Vindhyas

Nov 6th Paying lip service to Federalism

Nov 19th Deja vu – Whats with Gowda and shortlived BJP Governments

Offstumped Bottomline: As the BJP makes its case to the people of Karnataka on the alleged betrayal by the JD-S, it must come clean on the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor, BMIC Project. It must not just explain the events that led to the fall of its government but it must also explain?what the BJP?would do?different by way of Governance so never again?will Urban Infrastructure development be held hostage to one man’s greed.

PS: On the Madrassa rally in Mangalore, 2 comments one by Pramod on this blog another by a Khader on BNN have claimed that 2 former BJP MLAs allegedly said something. To date however no source has been referenced nor any first hand account of these remarks been presented. In the absence any authoritative source and given the manner in which the BJP and the entire sangh parivar have been painted with a wide brush one can only conclude that the Mangalore rally was a case of Muslim Vote bank politics at its worst with the aim of consolidating Muslim vote against the BJP.

Filed under: Karnataka Polls 2008