Road to hope

SC penalties for those blocking the Bangalore highway is a powerful warning to politicos

H.D. Deve Gowda should be happy 8212; he8217;s saved five lakh rupees. That8217;s the amount the Supreme Court has asked the Karnataka government to pay as the price for unnecessarily litigating over the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor BMIC. Deve Gowda may have ceased to be a de jure and, after H.D. Kumaraswamy8217;s revolt, even a de facto part of the state government, but it was his brazenly cynical politicking that delayed a project he had signed on as chief minister in 1995. In an ideal world, Deve Gowda should pay the fine. Still, with his mischief-making powers now considerably reduced, and the Supreme Court leaving no ambiguity whatsoever about BMIC8217;s validity, the current state government should do everything possible to help complete the project fast. BMIC8217;s importance to Bangalore cannot be overstated. This newspaper has reported and analysed in detail how BMIC will relieve pressure on Bangalore by integrating it with Mysore 8212; a replay of the Tokyo-Yokohama extended economic unit arrangement 8212; and how critical the corridor is for Bangalore8217;s

continued reign as an IT hub.

The broader implications from the judgment come from the bench8217;s observations that the arguments of the state government the appeal in the Supreme Court against the Karnataka high court upholding BMIC was filed when the Congress-JDS was in power were mala fide and that such abuse of the legal system must be penalised. This is a wonderful and powerful warning to interfering politicos who see infrastructure projects as an extension of bazaar politics. The warning is strengthened by the fact that the court also fined Marxist and Janata Dal MLAs who appealed against the May 2005 high court order. It should also be a fillip for entrepreneurs already in, or considering entry into, India8217;s infrastructure sector. Ashok Kheny of the Nandi Infrastructure Enterprise Corridor, the consortium building BMIC, had told this newspaper that no amount of money would have induced him to do the project again. He and many others should see the Supreme Court judgment as a hugely positive landmark.

How will the Congress see it? The party at the state and the Centre had allowed Deve Gowda to slowly butcher a technology hub at the altar of old style venal politics. As later events proved, Deve Gowda was not so invulnerable after all. The Congress lost the state and lost credibility as a party of governance in Karnataka. Whether over roads or over dams, the party must acquire the courage to do the right thing.