Poll day nearing, focus on real issues

On Saturday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah took potshots at the opposition Congress and Janata Dal (S) in Karnataka claiming that they believed in erstwhile rulers like Tipu Sultan of Mysore while the BJP venerated women like Rani Abbakka Chowta, the legendary Tuluva queen of Ullal.

On Sunday, Congress leader Siddaramaiah hit back claiming that BJP leaders were worshippers of Hindu ideologue Veer Savarkar and Nathuram Godse who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. As the Assembly polls, now just three months away, approach, such hot exchanges are sure to become more frequent for they involve historical figures at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum.

But is this the sparring people of the state would like to hear and keep in mind as they decide on their electoral choices? Savarkar and Tipu no doubt, are figures who generated their share of controversy but aren’t we veering away from real poll issues if leaders of opposite camps keep harping on them rather than the acute and present problems Karnataka faces? There are many of them, and with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai set to present the last Budget of his government in a few days from now, it would be worth analysing some of them and knowing whether they have received their share of attention during the ongoing political discourse.

The pandemic effect of the last two years led to the shutting down of several industrial units small and big, rendering thousands jobless. Will anything be done to restore industry to the pink of health and ensure our aspiring youngsters land more jobs? Prices of essential commodities and fuel have crossed reasonable limits and most people are hoping that the CM, while presenting his Budget, tinkers with the taxation system to bring some relief to them. There were bountiful rains last year but there is nothing spectacular about the health of the agrarian sector where farmers are still at the mercy of middlemen and lenders.

What they need is a big helping hand by way of better remunerative prices for their produce and a mechanism to adequately protect them from vagaries of the market. The IT and services sector are in the throes of an upheaval with thousands of jobs lost and many more industry majors planning to cut down their workforce to ensure that they do not go over the brink as the dark clouds of recession loom.

Has enough attention been paid to the current dilemma the IT sector faces because of a global downturn in digitisation campaigns? The sector employs lakhs of employees in Bengaluru alone. Have those in power given serious thought to measures to make sure that there are no massive layoffs that would send thousands of young professionals onto the streets? Bengaluru’s infrastructure is bursting at the seams in a city with a population of more than a crore, where even moderate rains lead to severe flooding and havoc in low-lying residential areas.

When roads and underpasses get flooded and trees are uprooted, the city inevitably slows down and productivity takes a big hit, something we all experienced during the disastrous rain mayhem in October-November last year. Not much has been done to remove encroachments on rajakaluves, which remains a headache for any city planner determined to stop flooding.

Karnataka is a state endowed with the best of natural resources and riches and there are sectors and sectors crying for attention—whether they are the coffee planters of Kodagu, civic workers in Bengaluru, the fishermen of Mangaluru or the sugarcane growers of Mandya. Unless the debate in the corridors of power focuses on the grave issues the state faces, our politicians in whom we repose so much faith and hope in every election are going to achieve but very little.