Despite all his faults, Karnataka CM deserves a pat on his back

Karnataka has been in the news for all the wrong reasons - continued attacks on African students in Bangalore; flight of capital and IT companies to neighbouring states as the infrastructure crumbles in the tech capital of the nation; more than 1,000 farmers committed suicide in 2015 alone; terror suspects surfaced from different parts of the state; communal disturbances are on the rise in coastal region...

But amidst all these, chief minister Siddaramaiah achieved a major milestone - he became the fifth Congress chief minister to complete more than 1,000 days in office!

Though the Congress ruled the state for more than 40 years with 12 different chief ministers, only five of them had survived beyond 1,000 days in office. As for Siddaramaiah, he has not only entered the history books, but is also showing signs of completing his five-year tenure without any opposition from within the party or the high command.

Alas, his failures overshadow his success, if any! In the absence of any suitable challenger, Siddaramaiah knows that it is difficult for the party to unseat him.

When the Congress came to power in Karnataka by dislodging the BJP government, which reeked in corruption-related cases, people expected a transparent and people-friendly administration.

But the bureaucrats and the police admit in private that the Congress rule is no better than that of the BJP. It is just that Siddaramaiah has insulated himself from any kind of criticism, internal or external, and continues to work at his own pace.

One of the biggest contributions of his administration is transfer of government officers round the year. A transfer policy, which is in place, states that government officers other than the IAS, IPS and KAS ranks should be transferred only during summer holidays. But now the transfers have become a business for the ministers. There have been episodes where even junior veterinary doctors, who earn meagre salaries, had to pay hefty sums for a posting after being deliberately disturbed from their existing offices. Even the humble teachers have not been spared from this transfer business.

On the contrary, officers in the lucrative police and transport departments have emerged as the biggest beneficiaries of this transfer business. Today, Bangalore has emerged as the preferred posting place among police officers, who have allegedly paid huge sums of money. When these officers come on to the roads to manage traffic or when civilians visit police stations with grievances, all they think of is fleecing them for money.

As a consequence, the police are no more controllable in Bangalore. Home minister G Parameshwara had the shock of his life when not even a single police officer was present at a private school function which he attended in Bangalore last week.

Things have come to such a pass that the police have become powerful enough to ignore the home minister!

The second biggest contribution of the government is undermining the efforts of an anti-corruption agency like Lokayukta, which was considered a role model for the rest of the country. Today, the agency has become headless and toothless after the previous Lokayukta, Justice Y Bhaskar Rao quit in the wake of corruption charges against his son.

The same is the case of the state human rights commission, which does not have a full-time chairperson. The fate of the Karnataka state public service commission is no different, as the appointment of its chairperson is pending.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)