Raja's read only memories

From a former chief minister justifying that support in our electoral process has to be purchased to a lawmaker getting away with assaulting policemen, recent incidents in Karnataka hold up a looking glass to what has horribly gone wrong in our democratic setup. Chances are if Indian democracy has not touched nadir it just did a little south of the Vindhyas over the last few weeks. An audio clipping of former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, son of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and national president of the Janata Dal (Secular), in conversation with another person did the rounds in the media recently, kicking up a furore. In it, he was heard demanding a hefty sum of Rs40 crore for support to an aspirant to the state Legislative Council. Following a negotiation the sum arrived at was Rs25 crore. Transcripts of the same were published in the dailies. Kumaraswamy, for his part, did not issue a denial and instead offered the excuse that is also an open truth that such transacti...

The reactions to media sting operations over time can be a barometer of their relevance. Consider this: In 2001, when Tehelka conducted one such operation on the BJP leader Bangaru Laxman by offering him a bribe; when caught, he was forced to step down as party secretary and was eventually sidelined. Such was the resultant embarrassment to the BJP that, as admitted by Laxman himself in an interview to The Indian Express , it consigned him forever to its margins. Circa 2014, two sting operations conducted in different parts of the nation under similar circumstances seemed to yield little result: while the one conducted by the news website mediasarkar.com on candidates of the Aam Aadmi Party, including Kumar Vishwas and Shazia Ilmi, showed them seeking cash donations in exchange for favours, the party firmly stood by them and discredited the operation. “Why not conduct this on BJP and Congress members?” asked one party member. Down south in Karnataka, when the Kannada news channel TV-...

Logos of the leading Tamil TV news channels Puthiya Thalaimurai (top) and Sun News Of late, TV news channels, and not sitcoms, seem to have become a source of comic relief. Not that this is a new phenomenon, but it has been rather pronounced of late. The other day I decided to tune in to a Tamil TV news channel and boy, I wasn’t disappointed. The channel was running a talk show, receiving grievance calls from public who had yarns of woe to relate, especially those relating to governance (in particular its deficiencies). One such caller said how sewage percolating into water supply lines in the suburbs of Chennai was proving to be a health hazard. It was the charade that followed that would prove to be a bounty of mirth. The caller then nearly choked on his tears, as the talk-show host listened on intently, asserting that this would not have happened if Kalaignar (DMK chief M Karunanidhi, to the uninitiated) was the chief minister. The host perked up when the caller ...

Sadananda Gowda & Manmohan Singh - Different at the outset, a lot in common Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadanda Gowda, at a BJP meeting in Belgaum on October 10, said that he met the “accidental prime minister” Manmohan Singh recently in Delhi and empathised with him as he too was an “accidental chief minister” - a statement that was, predictably, met with instant laughter and choreographed applause. If anything, Gowda was at his subtle best in conveying the truth. None expected either the Oxford educated Singh or the incumbent chief minister of Karnataka to be pitch forked into political prominence as they find themselves in today, and were done so only after other options in the respective party armouries were either exhausted or impractical. Despite them being their party’s mascots - their soft demeanours vital to the survival of the two parties - the decisions and statements of the two continue to be viewed as that of their ‘supposed’ masters, Sonia Gandhi for Sing...

In a move that could confound pollsters and analysts, the principal national political parties of the nation — BJP and Congress — have decided to come together in a state where their prospects have never been anything to gloat about, Tamil Nadu. The partnership, it is said, has been forged to take everyone by surprise. BJP state unit president L Ganesan addressed reporters in Chennai recently, "According to a secret public opinion poll, confidential even to its respondents, we realised that the public were tired of  the bickering between the Congress and us. Hence, this move, in addition to leading Tamil Nadu to the road of development, will offer some variety to the aam-aadmi, on whom to vote for." Former state Congress chief K V Thangkabalu, however, remained tight-lipped. "The decision rests entirely with Sonia Gandhi madam," he said, conceding that her son Rahul expressed interest over the partnership, as his previous attempts at improving the Congress' t...