State of play: Saffronists... Palike lost, but don’t let the city down

‘If I can’t have you, then I don’t want nobody, baby…..’’

The Bee Gees may have long exited our radiowaves, but if this is going to be the BJP’s strategy, play spoiler because it didn’t get the BBMP of its dreams, then not only do they run the very real risk of looking like bad sports — although, when has that ever stopped a politician — they will also look as if they don’t really care for the city.

And Bengaluru, mind you, is their so-called stronghold; the urban voter, said to be their mainstay. That’s no doubt, a constantly shifting voter demographic, on the move, always on the lookout for a better deal with one eye on the political messiah who can deliver, and the other on the main chance.

In the case of the migrant Bengalurean, motivated enough to make a beeline for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rallies every time he descends on the city, that God of all Things, would be the Gujarat strongman turned Delhi Big Boss, whose catchy sloganeering — yes, hawalabaazi ended the Congress’ hawaabaz — won him the confidence of the people of India. (Now let’s see if he can crack the Bihar caste puzzle!)

Wait a moment though. Could the doubts over Modi’s inability, despite his year in office, to go beyond the jingle and actually deliver on the economy have had an effect on our city vote? I mean, a 100 is decent enough.  But a 103 and the BJP wouldn’t have had to make the song and dance that they did, about being robbed of the Palike despite “the people’s mandate”.

Simply put, they were outmanouvred by the Congress and the JD(S). I didn’t think that the moneybags one normally associates with the political world could out-think a canny pracharak. But that’s exactly what the Congress’ with 76, the JD(S) 14 and the 7 Independents did, when they cleverly came together to give themselves a grand total of 97, and factored in something that the BJP clean forgot — the Karnataka Muncipal Corporations (KMC)  Act gives ministers and MLCs, the vote. (The court will rule on the votes’ validity on September 29.)

The look on the union parliamentary affairs Venkaiah Naidu’s face — reported to have repeatedly asked a clueless R Ashok and Sadananda Gowda and Somanna as they sat through Friday’s proceedings, ‘How could this happen to us’ — said it all. Now, how is he going to explain this to Modi? We weren’t out-smarted by the Congress and the JD(S)? We tripped ourselves up!

For now, technically the Cong-JDS combine is 4 short in the BBMP; (not, in the mayor poll though, where the Congress-JDS ended with 3 more than the minimum required.) But that begs the central question —  miffed as they are at coming within sniffing distance, will the BJP take their anger to its logical conclusion and oppose the Congress-JDS all the way? Will they block every proposal to clean up and get our city working again just to deny the Cong-JDS, the satisfaction?

We’ve already gone from garbage city to dark city, courtesy a Power Minister D.K. Shivakumar who hasn’t fully realized how angry and outraged Bengaluru is, over his blasé attempt to blame the Union Government, the weather, point fingers at anyone but himself and the men who run BESCOM for this completely inept mis-management of the power scene. Power cuts in September! Unheard of!

As I write this, the lights have just gone off again. On a Saturday, at 8 pm! In a city where the young love to party, and the old, retire with a good book or a movie! Both of which need electricity, Mr. Chief Minister!

The erratic power cuts have only added to the misery of residents who have to pick their way through the garbage that is piled up at every corner, and fob off stray dogs that are drawn like magnets to the very street corner that you want your child to play on — our parks are always locked up — and avoid falling into the wonderful new potholes that weren’t even there when you went for your morning jog!

Switching off power to street-lights! Haven’t they heard of solar, wind and battery-operated power? This is the 21st century, Mr. Shivakumar. And this is the IT capital. Bengaluru, a household name in every world capital! And the Power Minister’s answer to save power is to switch off street-lights! Yeah, in his well-protected safe cocoon, surrounded by a police escort and a dozen flunkeys, whizzing in and out of his mansions, he won’t get mugged or attacked or laid upon. We will.

As for the BJP’s much touted voter base, the majority of ‘em didn’t come out to vote, remember. Did the urban middle-class, young and old who have never trusted the Congress’ openly rural, pro-minority slant, stay home too?

If Ashok and Mr. Sadanananda Gowda know what’s good for them, and want to win that runaway vote back, they should drop the misplaced outrage. Let’s not forget, the BJP run BBMP was a disaster! And none of the gobbledygook that BJP MPs, MLAs, MLCs trot out, can gloss over the fact that the city of Bengaluru has never been brought to such a pass. Any move, therefore, to be anything but a constructive opposition will blow up in their faces.

It’s the BJP corporators who were clueless on how to tackle the greedy garbage mafia, the lorry mafia, the billboard mafia, all of whom leached the Palike of thousands of crores, last year alone. In fact, every new standing committee chairman who has been appointed, better be warned. Your antecedents will be checked and verified, and your every move from now on, is under the scanner, in the public domain.

I have little interest in whether Mr. Siddaramaiah, with his roots in simple, rural politics showed a Machiavellian side to him that fooled most people, within his own party and the JDS, and of course, the BJP. And that this was a gamble that would help him stay on for another term as chief minister and silence all his critics. That’s politics.

Or the critique that the JDS’ political sage HD Deve Gowda was driven to drop his antipathy to yet another of his wayward protégés to find a way back to political centre-stage, after years of being relegated to the opposition sidelines as a bit player, unable to win enough seats to make them the main opposition or fund a small morcha.

Bengaluru’s tax coffers overflow. And the Chief Minister will, willy-nilly have to share some of that munificence with his cash-strapped, newfound partners in the Dal — who, incidentally, have made it known that the partnership in the Palike doesn’t extend to the legislature. Whether the budget will be another vote on account, given that they are 4 short in the body, is moot. What is not, is releasing funds to rebuild the city, which must be done forthwith.

The Mayor better have a plan to present the CM. No real estate rip-offs please. One hears that the deputy mayor claims that she needs no lessons in governance, that she’s no puppet and knows what to do. That’s okay by all of us, but what we need is a smart, young savvy Minister for Bengaluru. Pick someone.

Anyone. A Krishna Byre Gowda. A Dinesh Gundurao. A Haris. Or Ramalinga Reddy. Not men who are steeped in keeping us trapped in the old ways but a forward-thinking individual who knows that roads, water, power, garbage and connectivity are what makes a city tick.  

Let’s get going, Mr. Chief Minister. The city is waiting.

(Neena Gopal is Resident Editor, Deccan Chronicle, Bengaluru)