Editorial: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah On The Back Foot After Governor’s Nod

Editorial: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah On The Back Foot After Governor’s Nod

FPJ EditorialUpdated: Sunday, August 18, 2024, 10:41 PM IST
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Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah | Twitter

The decision of the Karnataka Governor to grant permission to prosecute Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Mysore Urban Development Authority land scam is bound to force the Congress leadership on the back foot. On Saturday, following the go-ahead by the Governor, Siddaramaiah said that he wasn’t stepping down. In turn, he accused the Governor of playing politics. The combined BJP- JD (S) Opposition in the state is set to raise the protest pitch further against the government. With the Deputy Chief Minister, D K Shivkumar, himself embroiled in various corruption scams the moral authority of the Congress government in the state lies in tatters. The barely concealed power struggle between Siddaramaiah and Shivkumar is unlikely to cause a third leader with a relatively clean image to emerge, especially with the party high command wary of a risky change. Failing to put a lid over the feud between the CM and Deputy CM for the top job which has been played in the public space openly, it seems that the high command has a very limited say in the state unit’s affairs.

Nonetheless, the moral principle would call for Siddaramaiah to step down and face trial, to reclaim the CM’s post back only if he is honourably acquitted by the courts. There are precedents of political leaders in the long past resigning from elective posts under similar circumstances. On the other hand, the new norm-less politics of recent years has seen the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party continuing in the post while being imprisoned under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the excise scam in the national capital. Given that the leaders of both the BJP and the JD(S) in Karnataka too face charges of misconduct and malfeasance, it is hard for anyone in politics to take moral high ground. However, there can be no denying that Siddaramaiah’s position has further weakened with the Governor’s decision to okay his prosecution. On the face of it, charges in the MUDA scam are too serious to be brushed under the carpet. How a poor farmer’s land was transferred to the CM’s wife as a gift by her brother, how the area in question was notified and denotified and its eventual acquisition by MUDA, allowing her to make huge profits, all these things do seem fishy.

The modus operandi is not new for politicians in Karnataka or elsewhere in the country. But the Congress after its morale-boosting win in the Assembly polls in Karnataka had gone on to reclaim Telengana a few months later and it believed it was on come-back trail nationally, particularly after its improved tally in the Lok Sabha election. The renewed woes of the party in Karnataka where it had won big on its own without any ally would dampen down the efforts of the party leadership for a nationwide revival. The BJP campaign against the Congress of its leaders being always mired in corruption will be fleshed out yet again with the proposed prosecution of the Karnataka chief minister in the MUDA scam. Whether or not he steps down till he is cleared of the charges, the Opposition will raise the ante for the Congress leadership. Should someone knock at the judiciary’s door, seeking directions for Siddaramaiah to step aside during the pendency of the trial the CM may find himself in a piquant position. Ideally, he should resign and clear his name. Anyway, governance will suffer further in the state where the administration’s energies seem focused on upholding various guarantees of freebies given at the time of the Assembly polls. The tab for the freebies is to be eventually picked up by the hapless, voiceless middle-income taxpayers.

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