Bhardwaj is clearly a biased referee but why is the BJP scoring a self goal?
Written by The Indian Express
3 min read
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Governors of states are supposed to eschew all forms of partisanship. That is a principle that is increasingly,unfortunately,only half-adhered to. Yet Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj is a special case even so; when law minister at the Centre,he impressed only for his absolute devotion to the Congress partys interests. Not all of that attitude vanished when he moved into Raj Bhavan in Bangalore. Given that the BJP,the Congresss main opposition at the Centre,is in power in Karnataka,and that their relations are extremely fraught,Bhardwajs actions were always going to be closely scrutinised. And so far they do not,sadly,meet the disinterested and apolitical standard that is expected from those that hold his high constitutional office.
It is difficult,therefore,to divorce Bhardwajs decision to sanction the filing of a corruption complaint against Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa of the BJP from state or national politics. As this newspaper has reported,the two Shimoga lawyers who filed the complaint were supported by others,closely associated with the Congress partys ally,the Janata Dal United. Meanwhile the governor and the CM have gotten into something of a slanging match with each other: Bhardwaj has said Yeddyurappa is totally blind to corruption; Yeddyurappa has called Bhardwaj a Congress agent. This is not an edifying spectacle.
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But if the presence of an old Congress partisan in Raj Bhavan has exacerbated the situation, that does not alter one basic fact: the responsibility for allowing it to happen lies with the BJP leadership,which instead of dealing with its Karnataka mess,has chosen to equivocate whenever it speaks. Hence party president Nitin Gadkaris statement over the weekend that Yeddyurappas actions denotifying land to be used,eventually,by near relations and people close to them are immoral,but not illegal. This is splitting hairs very,very fine indeed. The national unit of the party has not been able to rein in the Reddy brothers of Bellary; they have not been able to persuade their legislators to let Yeddyurappa go; they have allowed the state BJP to disrupt life in Bangalore with a blatantly provocative bandh. Ducking the questions about Yeddyurappa will get the party nowhere,and deplete further its own political capital as the main opposition party at a dangerously fraught moment in our national politics.
