Siddaramaiah could have done a SMK, acted faster

Bengaluru: The resourceful chief minister that he is, just what stopped Mr Siddaramaiah from getting Bengaluru development minister K.J. George to resign soon after the explosive interview of DySP M.K. Ganapati hit the air 11 days ago?

Now that Mr George has made his exit after the court ordered the filing of an FIR against him, questions are being asked if the state’s people and its polity could have been spared this unsavoury episode which dragged on for so long.

In early 2000, then CM S.M. Krishna got T. John-another Christian minister- to quit soon after a controversial remark on the Gujarat earthquake and Christian missionaries. Mr Krishna completed his task-however unpleasant it was- the next day. Mr Siddaramaiah waited and waited and had to be told by the high command to get the minister out and save the party the blushes.     

A tale of 2 CMs: Siddaramaiah pays for delay
Did a reluctant CM Siddaramaiah do a lot more damage to the ruling Congress’ image by not acting swiftly to obtain the resignation of his trusted lieutenant, K.J. George and keeping the M.K. Ganapati suicide controversy alive for 11 days?

Insiders in the Congress aver that had the CM acted with alacrity soon after the Mangaluru  DySP appeared on new channels pointing an accusing finger at George, the storm would have blown over. Since then, several hundred hours of live programmes were telecast by news channels on the Ganapati episode doing irreparable damage to the government’s image.

May be Mr Siddaramaiah should have taken a leaf from former CM S.M. Krishna’s book while dealing with controversies of this kind. Old-timers will recall that in early 2000, Mr Krishna found himself in a spot after another Christian minister, T. John, made an embarrassing comment.  The veteran Congress leader who runs a chain of educational institutions,  told a meeting organised by a Christian group that Gujarat was hit by an earthquake because the state’s churches had been destroyed by anti-Christian campaigners! “Injustice was done to our people. For this God has punished people and the government in Gujarat,” he said. There were only two Kannada channels then, Udaya and E-TV, besides DD which used to telecast bulletins every hour. Mr John’s speech was telecast by E-TV in its evening bulletin triggering a strong outcry from Hindu groups.

The next morning, Mr Krishna got hold of the controversial CD and watched it with senior ministers. Not caring too much about the community impact or the need to shield his minister, the CM made John submit his resignation. Eventually, Mr Krishna saved the party and his government a lot of discomfiture.  Mr Siddaramaiah did exactly the opposite and went on defending the minister under fire though the end result was the same- his resignation. Subtle attempts were also made to play the community card to save George his berth but finally, the Congress high command put its foot down and saved the party the blushes. It could be because Mr Krishna was in a different league and commanded  a lot more respect and clout than Siddu, still considered an ‘outsider’ by many in the party. Maybe Mr George could have resigned on his own the day after the explosive interview and kept the party and government’s image intact while waiting for the outcome of the case to make a comeback. And the Legislature could have functioned smoothly to debate the budget and other issues till the month-end.

At the end of the day, the only ones smiling are unsuccessful Cabinet aspirants who did their best to make it during the recent reshuffle. Now, there are not one but two vacancies in the Siddaramaiah ministry!