State of play: Everyone's waiting to fish in Karnataka's troubled waters

The President got his first taste of what the Bengaluru of tomorrow will look like when he whizzed past us all on the Metro! We, the plebes, faced with the restrictions, put in place for the inauguration of the new Green Line, were stuck in endless traffic, knowing full well that this Metro connect, seven years late and Rs 14,405 crores in cost overruns is not even a patch on the kind of transportation this growing city of 10 million people really needs.

Sure, the tube links the East and the West, and now has a North-South intersect, but what about the rest of the city? What about a connect to the airport, to the Outer Ring Road, and through the IT corridors that snag traffic for hours, the mind-numbing morning AND evening rush hour? 

Set up a Metro that connects in concentric circles, Mr Chief Minister, as our expert columnist Ashish Verma writes so eloquently on Page 3, but given the Metro’s track record thus far, I for one, am not holding my breath that we will get the seamless connectivity that can effectively get people out of their cars and two wheelers, off the roads and into the metros. At least, not any time soon… Not until we get an even pavement from the metro station that we can walk home on, or a parking lot where we can leave our cars when we go to work; On the metro!

My other to-do on the bucket list? If only, we could send the wrecking ball after the zillions of filthy buses that one has to run to board as they shoot past the even filthier bus shelters that are home to stray dogs and excrement, and think nothing of slowing right in the middle of the road to let the VIPassenger off! Fume!!  

But, all of this is still work in progress. Much like our well-meaning Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who even after three years in situ, hasn’t figured out who his real enemies are. Surely, he must know that his so-called friends – even if they are former buds from the JD(S) - are doing him no favours at all, by trying – unsuccessfully - to unseat a sitting chair of the Legislative Council when the numbers are stacked against the Congress. Which begs the question? Why now? And hasn’t the CM learnt anything at all in dealing with the Janata Dal (S)?  How many times is he going to swallow the line that the father was blindsided by the son? Blindsided? The son always gets, exactly what he wants! 

Mr H.D. Deve Gowda pleaded ignorance when Mr Kumaraswamy supped with the BJP and set up a coalition government in 2006. The tacit arrangement with the BJP in the 2013 Bangalore Rural bypoll? Didn’t know about that. Or the Mysore Zilla Panchayat polls. Or the Mysore civic body elections! 

Either way, it was the Congress that was caught on the wrong foot by the deal within the deal, that they knew how to seal but were simply unable to close. It was obvious that the Shivamogga rivalry between a B.S. Yeddyurappa - who btw, despite the Gundlupet-Nanjangud debacle seems unstoppable - and his bête noire K.S. Eshwarappa - who will stop at nothing to bring him down - was the real smoke and mirrors story. And Kumaraswamy, the unwitting beneficiary. Word has it, that an uber rich jeweler who’s close to the father-son and the Council chairman Mr Shankaramurthy, for different reasons, played intermediary. 

Now if only the farmers in our country had HDD the advocate for their cause than this disconnected union agriculture minister. What happened to the much touted promised farm to market model that was set to transform the lives of our farmers?  The irony, I hope is lost on no-one – a bountiful harvest, a glut of fruits and vegetables, flush with grain in the market, yet prices crash. And the oh so clever central government says that all farm loan waivers are to be borne by the state. 

The CM would do well not to wait on advice on what to do with Karnataka’s farmers. There's a message in their silence!  For opposition and ruling parties, just more troubled waters to fish in!