Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 17: The ruling Congress in Karnataka has been thrown into the throes of a crisis with the Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot on Saturday sanctioning prosecution against the chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah over the alleged irregularities in site allocations by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to his wife BM Parvathi.
The Governor issued the order on Lokayukta to prosecute the chief minister on petitions by three social activists – Pradeep Kumar, TJ Abraham, and Snehamayi Krishna.
“As directed by the Governor, I am enclosing herewith the copy of the decision of the Competent Authority on the request of sanction for prosecution against the Chief Minister Shri Siddaramaiah, under Section 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarika Suraksha Samhitha, 2023 for the commission of the alleged offences mention in the petitions,” said a letter from the Governor’s Secretariat to the activists.
The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) has confirmed that it has received this communication. The Congress high command has thrown its weight behind Mr Siddaramaiah and has asked the party to stand by him and with the party’s support the chief minister has refused to resign declaring the governor’s order “unconstitutional and illegal” and announced his decision to fight it out in the court of law.
The BJP has welcomed the Governor’s go-ahead to prosecute Siddaramaiah. “By keeping enough records and evidences against the corrupt scandals of the Congress government and against the bias and corruption of the Chief Minister’s relatives, Siddaramaiah has demonstrated that there is no one to shake him,” said state BJP chief BY Vijayendra in an online post.
Defending him, Karnataka Congress alleged the Governor has been delaying action in probes against former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and former Karnataka ministers Sasikala Jolle and Murugesh Nirani, both belonging to the BJP. “But the fact that the Governor acted with alarming speed only on a baseless private complaint against the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah seems to be a politically motivated conspiracy,” it said.
The Governor had last month issued a “show-cause notice” to the Chief Minister, directing him to reply to the allegations against him within seven days and state why he shouldn’t be prosecuted.
This sparked a resolution by the state cabinet asking the Governor not to sanction the prosecution. The Siddaramaiah-led government had also advised him to withdraw the notice and alleged “gross misuse of the Constitutional Office” of the Governor.
The Governor’s notice followed a petition by anti-corruption activist TJ Abraham to prosecute Siddaramaiah over alleged irregularities in the MUDA. In his petition, he alleged the multi-crore scam caused huge losses to the state’s exchequer.
In a complaint filed with the Lokayukta police in July, Mr Abraham had alleged that the allotment of 14 alternative sites in an upscale Mysuru neighbourhood to Siddaramaiah’s wife BM Parvathi was illegal, which caused the exchequer a ₹ 45 crore loss. The complaint named Siddaramaiah, his wife, son S Yathindra, and senior MUDA officials.
Another activist, Snehamayi Krishna also alleged the involvement of Siddaramaiah, his wife, and MUDA and administrative officials in the alleged land scam. A fresh FIR was not filed as the police said probe was already underway in the case.
Siddaramaiah had claimed that the land for which his wife received compensation, was gifted by her brother Mallikarjuna in 1998. But activist Krishna alleged that Mallikarjuna had procured it illegally in 2004 and got it registered it using forged documents with the help of government and revenue officials. The land was shown to have been bought in 1998. Ms Parvathi sought compensation for this land in 2014, when Siddaramaiah was Chief Minister.
The BJP, which has been demanding a CBI probe in the case, held a weeklong padayatra from Bengaluru to Mysuru earlier this month against the Congress government.
Siddaramaiah has denied all charges against him and his wife BM Parvathi. Responding to the BJP offensive, Siddaramaiah had said his wife was awarded compensation when the BJP was in power and that it was her right. “They (BJP) are the ones who gave the site, now if they call it illegal, how should one respond?” he had asked.
He categorically ruled out stepping down from the office of Chief Minister. Instead, he would fight the case legally in court. In his first reaction after the Governor’s decision, Mr Siddaramaiah said he had not committed any mistake to warrant his resignation. The BJP, JD(S) and others had hatched a conspiracy to destabilise the Congress government in Karnataka.
“The BJP has been misusing the Raj Bhavan for political purposes. A conspiracy has been hatched to destabilise the elected government. The Governor is a puppet in the hands of the Central Government,” he said. Asked about the party high command’s decision, he said, “The high command is with me, the entire Cabinet is with me, all MLAs are with me, all Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members are with me.”
The Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar also ruled out resignation of Chief Minister and questioned the Governor’s decision to sanction prosecution of the Chief Minister without a preliminary inquiry.
“There is no question of the Chief Minister submitting his resignation. The entire Cabinet stands by him. He is my CM, and he will be my CM. He will continue in office. The entire party and all MLAs of the Congress will support him. The INDIA Alliance is also supporting him,” Mr Shivakumar said.
“The BJP is trying to destabilise the strong State Government of the Congress party in Karnataka. Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and H. D. Kumaraswamy issued statements on destabilising the government. The BJP hatched a conspiracy to destabilise the government. The BJP is using Raj Bhavan for political ends.” Noting that the party and the government would fight the case both politically and legally to save the Constitution and democracy, Mr Shivakumar said, “The Constitution will help us.”
The Congress high command on Saturday strongly came out in support of the embattled CM. However, the development, although expected by the party, could deepen the factional friction in the state unit. As of now, the message from the Congress central leadership to the state unit headed by Deputy CM D K Shivakumar is to defend Mr Siddaramaiah in the hour of crisis. The central leadership had discussed the issue earlier with the CM and the Deputy CM as the sense in the party has been that the Governor could grant the sanction for prosecution.
The Governor’s move has come at a time when the Congress in Karnataka is facing a fresh factional tug of war. But the Siddaramaiah camp believes the attacks against him by the BJP and the JD(S) and the Governor’s move have pushed the leadership into backing him completely. With the Congress gearing up for Assembly elections in four states, they believe the leadership will have no choice but to defend him and try and weather the storm for the time being.
The signal from the party is that it will play the backward card to politically counter the allegations against Siddaramaiah. Defending the CM, the high command on Saturday said the case was an attempt to target a CM who is from a Backward Class. Defending the CM, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala said the Governor’s action was a “conspiracy against the poor, the backward, the SC/ST and the marginalized sections by the BJP and the Modi Government.”
“In a brazen political conspiracy hatched in the corridors of PMO and the Home Ministry in Delhi against the people of Karnataka and its elected Government, the ‘puppet Governor of Karnataka’ has proceeded to grant prosecution sanction against the Chief Minister by dancing to the tune of his political masters. The decision is an act of shameless unconstitutionality by the Governor, who is hell-bent upon bulldozing the law and the Constitution to carry further BJP’s conspiracy,” Surjewala said.
He added, “The Machiavellian conspiracy of the PMO/Home Ministry/BJP leaders has three facets:— Try to steal the vote and the mandate of the people of Karnataka, decisively given in favour of the Congress party, by using the office of a ragdoll Governor, attack the Congress Government in order to accomplish the BJP’s evil design to stop the five Congress guarantees, benefitting over five crore Kannadigas and attack the Backward Class/SC/ST and marginalised sections by a fabricated design to tarnish the image of India’s senior-most backward class Chief Minister.
“Such fabricated and manufactured conspiracies will get shredded to pieces in the people’s court….We shall fight the battle legally as also in the court of the people of Karnataka and the country,” he said. Surjewala alleged that the Governor, by colluding with a complainant, had “brought huge disregard and infamy to his own Constitutional position in the process.”