Krishna146;s contortions

If the avowed objective of any ministerial reshuffle is to ensure better governance, it is as yet unclear how Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna hopes to achieve this objective through Thursday8217;s exercise. By increasing the strength of his team from 44 to 48, Krishna has at the most displayed mathematical prowess by naming representatives from Bidar, and the three new districts of Udupi, Chamrajnagar, and Haveri. However, he gave himself away when he sugar-coated the bitter pill for those five ministers whom he axed by insisting that it was 8216;8216;certainly not a reflection on their performance8217;8217;.

If competence and performance as a representative of the people is not the criteria for a minister staying on in office, then what is? Obviously, the grandiose ministerial appraisals, conducted by senior Congress observers not so long ago in Bangalore, were just part of a media circus. Unfortunately, politics in this state of a million mouse clicks also hinges on age-old considerations like caste and community. And, obviously, the liberal chief minister has carefully steered clear of any effort to fight such obscurantist attitudes, replacing one Vokkaliga with another and one Muslim with another. It is while playing this populist numbers game that Krishna has got himself embroiled in the machinations of politicians from north Karnataka. He has allowed the return of former PCC chief, V.S. Koujalagi, who is already under a cloud for his alleged involvement in a videotaped bribery scandal.

The net import is that Krishna is already faced with rumblings of dissent from a section of the influential Lingayat lobby in the state, led by senior minister H.K. Patil. This is a development that is sure to adversely hit the state government in the long run. If Thursday8217;s elaborate and unnecessarily dramatic reshuffle exercise 8212; the decision-making process went late into the night 8212; was Krishna8217;s way of showcasing his assertive face for the benefit of 10, Janpath, then it must indeed be hailed as a token of his personal success. But if it was meant to tone up the administration, especially in the rural belt, which should clearly be the focus of any chief minister8217;s agenda in the last two years of his tenure, then the ministerial reshuffle has turned out to be an exercise in futility.