Misfortune never comes singly. For the BJP nothing can be truer than this maxim. In the last week of May they were deserted by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. On June 12 Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, for the reason best known to him, publicly insulted all the party bigwigs, including former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi by cancelling their dinner at the 11th hour. On June 17 the BJP candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat in Jharkhand, Ajay Maru, lost. He could not even get the support of the alliance partner, the Janata Dal (United). Finally, on June 23 it received a big blow, when the Lokayukta (Ombudsman) of Karnataka, Justice N Santosh Hegde, a former judge of the Supreme Court, resigned 14 months before his tenure expires in August 2011.
While tendering his resignation, he directly held the state government responsible for shielding the corrupt bureaucrats and politicians. What is more shocking is that the resignation by a person holding a Constitutional body came just on the eve of the completion of two years in office of the chief minister B S Yeddyurappa. His resignation left the BJP top brass high and dry and deprived them of a golden opportunity to market the ‘success story’. In fact, this is the first BJP government in the state and till date the party has been beating the drum of its ‘achievements’ all over the country.
Justice Hegde declined to withdraw his resignation even though the Karnataka government and the Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram – obviously for different reasons – requested him to reconsider his decision. His resignation came just when the BJP started projecting Yeddyurappa as another ‘developmental-minded’ chief minister.
The truth, however, is that like Gujarat, when it was taken over by Narendra Modi, Karnataka too was a much developed state before he actually took over. Historical, location-al, social, and not just political, factors play very significant role in the development of a region.
What is shocking for the BJP is that this slap in the face of the government came within a fortnight of the two-day conclave (June 5-6) of the BJP chief ministers, deputy chief ministers and other top brass on good governance and development in a village near Mumbai.
The Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was projected as the champion of good governance and development; thus he gave a sermon on the topic.
Yeddyurappa is their asset in South India, therefore, he is not far behind in the BJP ranking. It is, however, another matter that 50,000 tonnes of iron ore disappeared from Karwar in his state though he holds the charge of the mining portfolio.
Another tall claim of the BJP’s new plank of development, honesty and good governance came up in a public rally on the final day of the tumultuous National Executive meeting of the party on June 13. The BJP chief ministers and top shots spoke about the new-found love, for development, corruption-free government and good governance. Once again the Gujarat chief minister was given maximum time – double than Advani and the party chief Nitin Gadkari. This is enough a pointer to the fact that who is their next man. Besides, there is no denying the fact that Hitler too hid his real agenda behind the fantastic slogan of development.
As the BJP has good hold in media, bureaucracy and even judiciary, it succeeds in marketing its achievement in a much better way than others. Not only the BJP, any party which joins hands with the Hindutva brigade gets extra publicity and projection.
For example, Chandrababu Naidu was not the development-minded chief minister of Andhra Pradesh during his first term when he was with in the United Front and National Front. But the moment his party decided to back the National Democratic Alliance in the second term, he was projected as the hero.
Similar was the case with Navin Patnaik of Orissa till 2008. Now the same BJP criticises his industrial policy, especially related to Posco or Tata.
Now in Bihar, Advani, between the lines, warned chief minister Nitish Kumar that whatever ‘development’ and ‘good governance’ (susashan) he is talking about is actually the slogan of the BJP.
Justice Hegde exploded all the myths of the Hindutva party at the worst of the time when ally after ally is deserting the party. But the BJP – and its fifth columnists’ – mastery in fudging the figures and distorting the facts has few parallel. Its Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments would make tall claims of development as if all is possible due to Prem Kumar Dhumal and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank – the two chief ministers.
The fact that Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand were given the special industrial package by the then Vajpayee government in 2003, was completely blacked out from the common people. And when that status expired in March 2010, they started talking about discrimination. Similar demand of the special package is repeatedly being demanded by Nitish Kumar in Bihar.
In a letter recently written to the Prime Minister, the chief ministers of Himachal and Uttarakhand said the central government was discriminating against the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states by not extending the industrial package which provided 100 per cent excise duty exemption, among other benefits. There was also centre’s plan to develop Himachal as the steel hub of India, though it is far away from mines.
Justice Hegde had made it loud and clear as to how the Karnataka government was depriving him from taking action against the corrupt at the top. The attack on the state government has come from totally unexpected quarters – not political – and the BJP bigwigs have been left speechless.