BJP knows that if Siddaramaiah quits, it may even pave the way for the dethroning of the Congress government as no leader, other than Siddaramaiah, would be able to hold the party and the government together.
Published Aug 20, 2024 | 6:00 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 20, 2024 | 6:00 PM
The governor’s sanction for investigation on 17 August brought the state Congress together. Pictured, a protest march against Governor Gehlot in Mangaluru. (Supplied)
Just into the second year in power, the Congress government in Karnataka in general, and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in particular, are facing a huge challenge with Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot according sanction for investigation and prosecution against him in a case of corruption relating to land allotment in Mysuru.
The case has the potential to alter the political landscape of Karnataka and hence, it has left the Congress shaken. Siddaramaiah will be in trouble if any court takes cognizance of the alleged offences.
The governor’s sanction for investigation on 17 August brought the state Congress together. The council of ministers and the state unit of the party stood solidly behind the chief minister. While internecine battles may be there between Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister-cum-KPCC president DK Shivakumar, the latter led the protests against the governor, calling him a puppet of the central government. The party decided to raise the pitch against the governor by holding state-wide protests starting 19 August.
To be fair to Siddaramaiah, his political career of close to five decades was largely blemish-less. Hence, the present case has turned out to be the biggest test that the chief minister is facing; it has turned out to be a critical issue for him since the current development of the governor’s sanction has serious and wide ramifications.
The governor was acting on the petitions filed before him by three social activists — TJ Abraham, Snehamayi Krishna, and Pradeep Kumar SP — seeking permission to prosecute the chief minister.
So, what will happen now? The Congress and the chief minister will fight the case both legally and politically. The chief minister moved the Karnataka High Court on August 19. The court directed the trial court to defer proceedings against Siddaramaiah.
Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot. (PMO/Wikimedia Commons)
If the high court had failed to stay the case, it may have led to the governor sanctioning prosecution and the agencies to take over the case. It may take time for the agencies to conduct the probe and file a report before the court. Legally, even after this, the chief minister need not quit, like in the case of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal but pressure will build on him and the Congress for his resignation.
So, what is the case all about? The scene of action is Mysuru (formerly Mysore), 120 km from Bengaluru. The case in question relates to the transfer of land by MUDA (Mysuru Urban Development Authority). The sequence of events is like this (loosely): one Mallikarjunaswamy purchased land measuring 3.16 acres on the outskirts of Mysuru in 2004 and in 2010, gifted it to his sister Parvathi, who is the wife of Siddaramaiah. By 2014, MUDA acquired this land and Parvathi requested MUDA to provide a plot in place of the lost land. In 2021, MUDA offered 14 plots under the 50:50 (land + money) scheme to her.
Siddaramaiah has strongly defended himself while questioning the governor’s move. Asserting that he has not brought pressure on anyone, he noted that the sites were given instead of the land his wife lost.
“I have not asked that my wife be given alternative sites in any particular location. Whatever the legal procedure is has been followed and is as per MUDA rules,” Siddaramaiah said. The chief minister added that “the governor’s sanction was not supported by any documents that held me guilty.
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah (Facebook)
Also, the governor’s order is a violation of Section 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act as per which the order must be based on a request from a DG or IG-level police officer. There was no such request. Also, the governor’s sanction must depend on an investigation and in this case, there was no probe report by any agency”.
He added that requests for sanction against current Union minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, BJP leaders and former ministers Murugesh Nirani, mining baron G Janardhana Reddy and Shashikanta Jolle were pending before the governor. “Why has he not given sanctions against these leaders?” Siddaramaiah questioned, charging the governor with a discriminatory attitude.
Smelling an opportunity to unseat the chief minister, whose powerful presence is seen as the main stumbling block against the BJP, the saffron outfit has upped the ante against Siddaramaiah, demanding his resignation. The BJP, which lost badly in the 2023 Assembly elections (won 66 seats as against 135 of the Congress in a House of 224), feels removing Siddaramaiah, who has a strong support base among the depressed sections (especially the backwards and minorities), would considerably weaken the party.
BJP leaders opine that if Siddaramaiah quits, it may even pave the way for the dethroning of the Congress government as no leader, other than Siddaramaiah, would be able to hold the party and the government together.
But BJP knows it has to tread cautiously. The party also knows that any move to dislodge Siddaramaiah is fraught with danger as it may lead to the Ahinda (Kannada acronym for minorities, backwards and Dalits) followers regrouping and backing him even more strongly.
However, if the court had ordered a stay on the governor’s sanction move, it would be deemed a major victory for the chief minister and it would mean that all the BJP-JD(S) plans may backfire. A stay would leave the chief minister stronger than ever and it may even block the chances of the pretender to the throne, Shivakumar.
This is not the first time that a governor has granted sanction against a chief minister in Karnataka. In 2011, then-governor HR Bharadwaj gave sanction to prosecute then-chief minister BS Yediyurappa of the BJP. Interestingly, the case also related to land — it was an instance of denotification of land.
The probe took some 10 months but before the report was submitted, he had resigned. When Bharadwaj sanctioned prosecution, it was the Opposition Congress which was at the forefront of demanding the resignation of the Lingayat strongman. Now, it is Yediyurappa’s son, state BJP president and MLA BY Vijayendra who is leading the party’s demand for Siddaramaiah’s resignation.
Thus, the stage is all set for a confrontation between the state and the Centre (Raj Bhavan, in other words) on both legal and political fronts, like what was witnessed in the anti-NDA ruled Delhi, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, etc. A lot will depend on the proceedings that began in the Karnataka High Court on 19 August.
(The writer is a senior journalist based in Bengaluru. Views are personal. Edited by Majnu Babu)
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