There was respite from rains at the opening of Bangalore’s IT.in but not from H D Deve Gowda, JD-S leader and Congress’s Big Brother. So while Chief Minister Dharam Singh used the opening of the showpiece international IT trade event to outline steps to address the city’s crumbling infrastructure—the metro rail and the international airport—chief guest Gowda tuned in to politics. Bangalore has ‘‘grown enough,’’ Gowda claimed, the ‘‘IT industry must not concentrate in Bangalore.’’ Instead, he asked for IT investments to Tier II Karnataka cities—his hometown Hassan, Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli and Gulbarga. ‘‘We want to decongest Bangalore, we don’t want congestion,’’ he said. His audience of global software professionals might not have grasped the nuances of coalition politics but Gowda held forth on how there has been a ‘‘whispering campaign’’ against the state government. And said that those who are against the coalition cannot de-stabilise the government. ‘‘Can anyone dare say Deve Gowda has created hindrance to the growth of IT? I know unless we create wealth, we cannot remove poverty. I am not going to minimise the contribution of the IT sector in this, I am not jealous of your earnings,’’ he said. He replayed his allegations against Infosys without naming the company—he denied later that he had targeted any individual. ‘‘90 per cent of IT industries are running their business on rented offices.Every land allotted should be accountable and the single window agency should look into the land allotment issue.’’ He also asked for jobs for land lost to the IT sector. ‘‘I have warned the CM to ensure that those who lose their lands for industrial development should get a job in the industry,’’ he said.
