A narrative portraying the time of Nero, the ruler of Rome during the first century, authored by 1905 Nobel Prize-winning novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz and published in instalments by dailies during 1895 in Poland, came out in book form in 1896 under the title ‘Quo Vadis?’ meaning ‘Where are you going’? in Latin. The backdrop to the narrative, translated into more than 50 languages and also presented as a Hollywood biopic in 1951, is traced to an episode of Saint Peter coming face to face with Jesus while fleeing from Rome and subsequently retreating after hearing the Lord giving him the message that the people of Rome didn’t deserve to be deserted. For reasons not needed to be stated explicitly, the ongoing political scenario and the melancholy the people of the land, particularly Kannadigas, are experiencing, the aforementioned question merits to be asked, one being not clear about who should ask the question and who else should answer it.

The annual ritual of the State government’s Chief Minister presenting the budget on the floor of the Legislative Assembly, followed by varied responses from the Treasury benches and the Opposition in the all-too-familiar dramatic action is folding to a closure, opening the door wide for people to ask Quo Vadis? and once again get lost in the oblivion.

Full-throated claims of almost totally fulfilling the pre-poll assurances blared prior to the Assembly elections in 2013 by the heavy-weights in the ruling party, as reported faithfully by the unbiased media are still reverberating in the minds and ears of the hapless citizens even as the usually vociferous Opposition is not giving up its mission of berating the government. The section of the population enjoying favoured class status is clamouring for more favours in cash and kind while the rest is left in no doubt where they are heading to, with the answer as clear as daylight. The wretched middle class is the modern face of oppression that the society of a distant past is accused of.

Reverting to the matter bearing on the State’s budget, the discussions witnessed in the State Legislative Assembly failed to promise that public funds were in safe hands. In short, the acts of encroaching lake beds, chopping down trees senselessly, vandalising forests and so on  with no signs of abating, even the man-in-the-street knows the answer to the question Quo Vadis?