Opinion Ministry of scandals

The state BJP’s scandal roster is rather long. Last week,the state’s education minister,Ramachandra Gowda,quit — or,more accurately,was sacked — after gross irregularities were uncovered in his hiring of over 300 employees such as nurses in government-run hospitals and laboratory technicians in medical colleges. The government was forced to cancel the illegal appointments.

Haratal Halappa quit as food and civil supplies minister in May this year after being accused of raping his friend’s wife. DNA tests indicated that the body fluids on the woman’s clothes were indeed the minister’s. Halappa denies the charge. Local tabloids say he is in a quandary. If rape is proved,then it is a long jail term; else,a shorter one for adultery. Ludicrously,Yeddyurappa explained away the episode as a “conspiracy” against his government.

Not long ago,S.N. Krishnaiah Setty,the religious endowment minister,was accused of irregularities in the purchase and sale of land to the government-run Karnataka Housing Board. Setty was later dropped.

In another salacious scandal,a nurse accused the MLA from Honnali,north of Bangalore,M.P. Renukacharya,of luring her into a relationship and then threatening her life when she insisted on marriage. As a clincher the nurse released some telling photographs of herself with the married Renukacharya,lodged a police complaint and then petitioned the governor against the man. Renukacharya became the excise minister of Karnataka and many twists and turns later,the case culminated in a patch-up between the two in April this year.

An early humiliation for the BJP came in June 2008. Udupi MLA Raghupathi Bhat’s wife Padmapriya,32,mysteriously disappeared leaving behind two young children. A massive manhunt was launched,backed by Karnataka’s home minister,V.S. Acharya,whose protege Bhat is. In a shocking end to the scandal,Padmapriya’s body was discovered hanging in a fully-furnished apartment in New Delhi rented just three days before. The brand new car she had just bought was parked outside. Acharya said it was a case of suicide. The MLA blamed a close aide for leading his wife astray. The question of whether Padmapriya’s death was a straightforward case of suicide still lingers.

Further,there are matters of a different gravity afflicting the government. Two ministers and an MLA of the BJP,all brothers and mine owners,are in the thick of Karnataka’s mining controversy where thousands of crores of rupees worth of minerals have been looted in northern Karnataka. Tourism Minister Janardhana Reddy,Revenue Minister Karunakara Reddy and MLA Somashekhara Reddy have been accused of large-scale,illegal mining on the Karnataka-Andhra border. The Reddy Brothers,or the Bellary Brothers as the powerful troika is referred to here,have survived the national-level scandal apparently because they have the blessings of party bosses in New Delhi. In India,ill-gotten money usually bankrolls political parties,so the “blessings” may well mean approval.

Yeddyurappa has balked at acting against corrupt and scandalous colleagues and shown himself to be a weak chief minister. Take this example. In a case (granted,not a very significant one) following a private complaint,nine non-bailable warrants have been issued against his tourism minister,Janardhana Reddy. Serial offenders and criminals on the run ignore such warrants. But this is a minister we are talking about. Janardhana Reddy has spurned the warrants and yet remains in full public view. And Yeddyurappa continues to keep him in the ministry.

saritha.rai@expressindia.com