thekarnatakastory http://thekarnatakastory.posterous.com All things Karnataka posterous.com Wed, 17 Oct 2012 23:16:00 -0700 Kannada TV channels turn into kangaroo courts http://thekarnatakastory.posterous.com/kannada-tv-channels-turn-into-kangaroo-courts http://thekarnatakastory.posterous.com/kannada-tv-channels-turn-into-kangaroo-courts

It was much like a Kangaroo court. The difference, though, was that the trial and sentencing was not instant. It went on for a good 11 hours in which the accused, a godman who many say is self-styled and is not particularly known for his holy ways, was subjected to a tirade by a panel of some 10 activists. The forum was a Kannada television news channel, Suvarna News 24X7.

At the end of the inquisition, Swami Rishikumara was forced to write out a letter saying he was abdicating the seat of the Kali Mutt (monastery) till the time people of Karnataka were ready to accept him back. Rishikumara was caught red-handed in a sting operation mounted by another Kannada channel in which he was seen demanding Rs 11 crore from some deal-makers to cry a halt to the agitation against another controversial godman Nithyananda.

Throughout the day (16 Oct 2012), Suvarna News played the part of judge, jury and executioner to the hilt. The panelists, egged on by the anchors, let loose a barrage of questions all aimed at ridiculing and humiliating him. Every now and then, the exchanges would turn ugly. At one point of time when the programme was into its fifth hour, a Kannada activist got up and yanked the saffron turban off the swami’s head saying he didn’t deserve the holy ochre robes. One would have expected the anchor to intervene, but he remained a silent spectator.

Right from the beginning, it looked like Suvarna News had decided to shame the man. On a table next to the anchor, a set of trousers and shirt was kept for the swami to change into if, at the end of the inquisition, he decided to give up his saffron robes. It also held a poll on Facebook and on SMS, asking viewers to say if the swami deserved to continue wearing saffron or not. The results were announced towards the end of the programme by the anchor who said some 50,000 people had polled in their votes and that it was a good enough sample size. Predictably, a majority wanted him to shed his kaavi.

Rishikumara has a colourful past. He has a wife and two children and has acted in movies as a villain. He was also a Bharatanatyam dancer and acted in plays before he took sanyasa. Not much was known about him till Suvarna News started a campaign some months ago against Swami Nithyananda, and in many of the TV debates and public agitations Rishikumara played an active part. Only a few days ago, Suvarna News had used him in a sting against Nithyananda.

Whatever be the man’s wrong-doings, how can a television channel arrogate to itself the task of punishing and shaming him in public? If Suvarna News is today castigating him for his past – he has been accused of smoking and consuming liquor, and having four wives – why did it promote him all these months when he was a regular in its studios, notably on its programmes on Nithyananda?

If recent campaigns and programmes by Kannada TV news channels are anything to go by, they can be faulted for having scant regard for good journalistic practices. Sensationalism, invasion of personal privacy, use of crude and intemperate language, et al, are on show day in and day out. If one day much of the air time is devoted to dissecting the murder of an actress, another day it is the exploits of a sex-crazy swami. Judgments are freely pronounced, individuals’ reputations are tarnished, and punishments are meted out. There is hardly any closure to any issue they take up. It is simply a mad scramble for TRPs. Responsible journalism is out of the window.

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Fri, 05 Oct 2012 09:51:37 -0700 Rubbing salt into Karnataka's wounds on Cauvery http://thekarnatakastory.posterous.com/rubbing-salt-into-karnatakas-wounds-on-cauver http://thekarnatakastory.posterous.com/rubbing-salt-into-karnatakas-wounds-on-cauver

The government of India is simply making a fool of Karnataka. First Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his capacity as Chairman of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) passes an order directing Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu till 15 October. The Supreme Court upholds the order after which Karnataka starts releasing the water. And when protests spiral in the Cauvery districts in Karnataka, Singh sends a team of officials to the two states for a sitrep which will have to be submitted by 15 October.

Now, that begs the question "why couldn't a team have been sent before the CRA passed the order at its meeting on 19 September?" Had that been done, the CRA may have been armed with a better understanding of the ground situation in the two states and come out with an order that wouldn't have sparked the kind of outrage it has. And even if the order weren't any different, Singh would at least have not given the opportunity for Karnataka to cry foul. Statesmanship on the part of the powers in Delhi is clearly in short supply.  

Given that the official team's mandate is to submit a report by 15 October, it may well be that the CRA or the Supreme Court wouldn't want to intervene till that date. Which in effect would mean Karnataka more or less complying with the 9,000 cusecs per day till 15 October directive. That would amount to rubbing salt into Karnataka's wounds.

 

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Mon, 01 Oct 2012 09:40:00 -0700 Yeddyurappa fourth dimension to 2013 Assembly elections http://thekarnatakastory.posterous.com/163899225 http://thekarnatakastory.posterous.com/163899225

B.S.Nagaraj

Has B.S.Yeddyurappa crossed the Rubicon? Has he made up his mind to leave the BJP and float a new party?

The fiesty former chief minister has been using every occasion, every forum to make us believe he indeed is calling it quits. In another two months, we should know. Yeddyurappa is looking at a mid-December date for a public announcement of his plans for the future.

It is not for the first time that Yeddyurappa has stoked speculation about his leaving the party to whose growth he has contributed in large measure all these years. On earlier occasions though, he has held himself back on the strength of a concession here and a concession there.

Will it be the same this time around too? Unlikely. The rift is far too wide. There appears to be clarity in the minds of the BJP national leadership and Yeddyurappa that a divorce is but inevitable. For the last few weeks, he tried convincing BJP chief Nitin Gadkari that he should be made president of the state unit. Gadkari hasn't obliged. And Yeddyurappa has promptly retaliated in public, not just against Gadkari but L.K.Advani, even if obliquely, as well. He has accused them of falling prey to bete noire Ananth Kumar's machinations against him.

And there was more evidence today, at least from Yeddyurappa's side that there is little room for compromise. Party bigwig Arun Jaitely arrived in Bangalore apparently for a chat with Yeddyurappa. But the latter would have none of it.  "I am not meeting him ... Jaitely has come here for a programme with which I have no connection," he said, before conveniently pushing off to his home district Shimoga.

Elections are due to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly before May 2013. If the parting of ways between Yeddyurappa and the BJP has to happen, it can't wait for long. While the BJP will have to find a new leader -- Jagadish Shettar may be chief minister but Ananth Kumar will not give up his claim to the top job -- Yeddyurappa will have to build a new party. Many of his supporters will probably go with him but floating a new party will require a lot of prepartion.

Yeddyurappa's imminent exit from the BJP will add an interesting fourth dimension to Karnataka's electoral politics in the coming months. Minus the BJP association, the Congress shouldn't be too shy of doing post-poll business with him. Hints to that effect have already been dropped from both sides. Yeddyurappa has solid backing from the numerically-strong Lingayats, a constituency that has been lost to the Congress for some years now. The chances of Yeddyurappa and H.D.Kumaraswamy's Janata Dal (Secular) forgiving and forgetting their bitterness don't appear bright, at least for now.

Yeddyurappa may be a popular leader but his last two years have been ignominous. Corruption cases and a stint in jail have dented his image. Assuming that his support base will remain undisturbed is risky.  

 

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Mon, 01 Oct 2012 03:46:00 -0700 Cauvery: All stakeholders fail but Centre biggest culprit http://thekarnatakastory.posterous.com/163874347 http://thekarnatakastory.posterous.com/163874347

B.S.Nagaraj

The more things change the more they remain the same. That has been the story of the dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the sharing of Cauvery waters. 2002 is repeating itself now in 2012.

Ten years ago, reservoir levels in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had plummeted. The monsoons had failed in both states. Karnataka said it had no water to share with Tamil Nadu. The then chief minister S.M.Krishna went on a padayatra in the Cauvery basin districts of Karnataka to express solidarity with farmers. Karnataka's stand was not taken kindly to by the Supreme Court with Krishna having to personally appear before it to apologise for holding in contempt the court's directions.

Things haven't been much different now. Karnataka has had a miserable monsoon and there isn't much water to share with its neighbour. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also heads the Cauvery River Authority, summoned chief ministers Jagadish Shettar and J.Jayalalitha for a meeting to devise a solution. Release 9,000 cusecs of water every day till 15 October, he told Karnataka. In uncalled for bravado that couldn't have been sustained, Shettar walked out only to be ticked off by the apex court. The bravado vanished, and in the dead of night Shettar ordered open the crest gates of two reservoirs. And even as water started making its way to the border with Tamil Nadu, farmers in Mysore and Mandya districts began setting up highway blockades and stopping trains.

In all these decades, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu haven't learnt how to share distress. Formulae devised by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal to manage the deficit have not been easy to apply. Emotions run high on both sides. Karnataka doesn't own Cauvery even if she is born there, but how do you tell farmers to be generous when they don't have enough. On the Tamil Nadu side, farmers have historically grown three crops in a year while their counterparts in Karnataka grow only two. But how do you convince them to be understanding.

And politicians will be politicians. So expect grandstanding -- remember Jayalalitha's Marina Beach fast in 1993 --  one-upmanship, and everything else but cool, reasoned thinking. Legal eagles will be what they are. After all they don't have to face the distraught farmer. So they will stick to constitutionality and the rule of law.

The lack of a shared long-term vision by all stakeholders has meant that the century-old riparian dispute continues to evade resolution. While there is not much to expect from politicians from the two states, the biggest failure has been that of Delhi. Its role has been to play impartial referee but partisan considerations have got the better of fair play. No prime minister has taken any initiative so far to strive for a resolution that is acceptable to all. Delhi remembers Cauvery only when inter-state tensions come to the fore.

 

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