Corruption: Does the BJP have an answer?

Will corruption be the biggest game-changer in the coming Karnataka Assembly polls? Or will it be the issue of development, the infrastructure needs of Bengaluru and administrative efficiency on which the BJP government has faced a lot of flak? Or will polarising attempts to divide communities come into play and make sure issues pertaining to development and corruption are quietly forgotten in the frenzy?

Two days after the state woke up to the distressing news that a legislator’s son had been caught with wads of cash running into several crores, the opposition Congress and JD(S) have been pillorying the Bommailed government saying it is corrupt to the core and does not deserve a second chance in government.

The CM has as usual, come up with a defensive reply asserting that the incident will be investigated and the corrupt punished. The Congress is not letting things rest at that and has called for a state bandh to protest against the corrupt “acts” of the government. Meanwhile, the Channagiri MLA at the centre of the controversy remains elusive. Unbridled corruption is eating away at the vitals of Karnataka society and the people know it more than anyone else. No file moves in government departments and no payments are made without a ‘cut’.

Bribes are slowly but steadily becoming the norm rather than the exception to get things done in the government, and most people have become used to making the pay-outs without batting an eyelid and with no feeling of guilt whatsoever. The bureaucracy and politicos in government are hand in glove as far as pay-outs are concerned, for they know that it is a win-win situation for them as long as their acts remain unnoticed by law enforcement agencies. What the latest ‘Soapgate’ incident goes to prove is that the BJP top brass has been unable to keep a check on the corrupt acts of their leaders.

Already saddled with the 40 per cent commission charge – levelled by the Contractors’ Association – the Bommai government is facing the same predicament that the previous Congress government led by Siddaramaiah found itself in 2018 ahead of the Assembly polls. It was PM Modi himself who coined the term ‘10 percent Sarkar’ in his poll speeches then, remarking that the culture of commission and cuts runs deep.

The BJP leaders had then coined phrases like sand mafia, lake mafia and transfer mafia to deal the death knell to any hopes the Congress had of returning to power. The table has turned since then and now, it is the BJP that will have a lot of explaining to do to the people who elected the party to power with more than a 100 seats in 2018. Have they done anything substantial to redeem the faith Kannadigas reposed in them?

Have Bengaluru’s infra woes including its roads, drains, power and water supply got the much-deserved boost or are we still at the mercy of the rain gods every monsoon? Has the farmer received the remunerative price he so much craves for or is he grappling with hostile weather and inflationary trends? Has anything significant been done to ease unemployment woes, more so when lakhs of students emerge from colleges every year hoping that there is a job out there waiting for them?

Joblessness, price rise, infra woes and corruption – these are burning issues which, going by the experience of the past five years, have not received the attention they deserve from the incumbent government. It could also sound the death knell for any hopes the saffron party has of returning to power for the opposition is waiting to go hammer and tongs at them. Unless the BJP’s poll managers have a ‘magic wand and quick-fix solutions’ to make all their worries disappear in a jiffy!