Now tell us who should cry, the CM or the people?

As if we didn’t have enough crying in our movies and TV sitcoms, we now have to deal with ‘senti’ Chief Ministers, who have turned Karnataka Chief Minister’s Office into Karnataka Water Works Department !

Just over a week ago our Chief Minster while addressing his party workers let his lacrimal glands run wild. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy (HDK)cried and said he has turned into Vishakanta. Many may know this is the name given to Lord Shiva who consumed poison to save the Universe. But whom is HDK saving? And what is this poison that HDK has consumed?

Is the CM talking about Congress pushing him to deal with the farm loan waiver? But then he is the “son of the soil” and his Party’s symbol is a “A lady farmer carrying paddy on her head,” so shouldn’t he be happy to be the one who saves farmers?

That said, it is we the people of Karnataka who have to shed tears because just two days after the CM cried, his government called an all party meeting to discuss the Cauvery issue. And how were the MLAs invited?

Each MLA was given an Iphone X mobile phone and a leather designer bag! Iphone X costs Rs. 75,000 a piece and leather bag we don’t know! Do MLAs need to be lured with gifts to do peoples’ work?

Now tell us who should cry, the CM or the people?

While MLAs get gifts of over Rs. 1,00,000 to simply attend a meeting and while the CM’s brother can go up and down between Hassan and Bengaluru every day, a 360-km journey with an entourage of cars filled with petrol paid for by the tax-payer, this government could not give free bus passes to poor students.

Now tell us who should cry, the CM or the people?

On July 5, the CM announced partial crop loan waiver, but the banks are not waiving the loan. Why? Because the previous government and now HDK’s partner the Congress, never reimbursed the banks for the previous loan waiver! To add, the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) says they will begin waiving loans only after getting paid for the previous waiver. After this they will have to get guidelines from the government about how to waive new loans, following which they will prepare a list of beneficiaries, and only after all this will they begin waiving loans! Yes, it’s going to take time.

Now tell us who should cry, the CM or the people?

As for industries, the State government has increased electricity tariff by 9 percent, water for industrial use by 10,000 percent ! (it went from Rs. 3,200 to Rs. 3 lakh for one million cubic feet of water), Road tax for school buses and industrial employees’ transport went up by 50 percent. Add to this, floods in South Karnataka and urban infrastructure problems have sent our State spinning out of control.

While all these problems are plaguing our State, the most crucial highway in South Karnataka for tourism and commerce, the Mysuru-Bengaluru highway was shut down for hours so the CM could celebrate his accidental victory…

Now tell us who should cry, the CM or the people?

We understand that CMs can be emotional, but we would be more sympathetic if the CM could only let his saline secretion lead to long-term solutions for the problems that make the people of Karnataka weep everyday.

Many leaders have cried in the past, especially Yeddyurappa. He cried when JD(S) did not transfer power. He cried when he campaigned post-BJP-JD(S) split. He cried when he visited a farmer’s widow. He cried when he was forced to remove his Principal Secretary. He cried when his Minister for Rural Development was made to resign. He only cried and cried while our State died.

Now tell us who should cry, the CM or the people?

Everyone from Modi to Putin have cried. But simply crying with no action makes it insincere. It makes a citizen feel like he has been made a sentimental fool by a leader he has trusted and elected.

The fact is among the recent CMs that we have had, HDK is considered the one with the best temperament to rule. But he cries citing coalition compulsion. But when you accept power you are accountable to deliver. So if HDK feels Congress has made him swallow poison, all he has to do is simply spit it out… resign.

Now we must remember the poison that Lord Shiva drank was produced when Asuras (Demons) and Devas (Gods) were churning the Ocean of Milk (Ksheera Sagara) to get Amrutha (Nectar of Immortality). It seems in our State, two political parties are churning Karnataka for Amrutha and it is we the people of Karnataka who are becoming Vishakantas swallowing the Poison (taxes) to save our farmers, not HDK.

Now tell us who should cry, the CM or the people?

e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com