Corruption, civic apathy likely to rock monsoon session of K’taka legislature

The Karnataka legislature’s monsoon session scheduled to commence on Monday is expected to be stormy as opposition parties Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) are gearing up to corner the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government over the recent floods, rising allegations of corruption and lack of development among others issues.

Incidentally, the Bommai government celebrated its 3-year rule on Saturday in Bengaluru, “Janaspandhana”, after several delays like the BJP youth wing’s outcry after Praveen Nettaru murder case and then the death of minister Umesh Katti.

The session is scheduled to go on till September 23.

“Let @BSBommai first clean his own house. 40% saraka is filled with looters & scamsters. Mr @BSBommai, I challenge you for an open discussion on corruption. We are always ready. You fix the time & venue, and we will come,” Siddaramaiah, the leader of the opposition and Congress MLA, said in a series of Twitter posts on Sunday.

Bommai has had a difficult term in office since he replaced BS Yediyurappa in July last year, inheriting all the challenges like corruption allegations, infighting and lack of development under the BJP since 2019.

Bommai has also adopted a hard-right approach with the introduction of bills like anti-conversion and almost justifying moral policing with the “action and reaction” remark last October.

His government also gave at least ₹25 lakh to the families of Harsha Jingade and Praveen Nettaru, both right-wing activists who were murdered, but has not done the same for others from the Muslim community who met the same fate on account of hate crimes.

In more recent times, the government has been under pressure over the police sub-inspector (PSI) and KPTCL recruitment scandal. There have been at least two letters from the Karnataka state contractors association, alleging and even naming ministers and other elected representatives demanding bribes to award public works.

“The 40% govt has now waded into the supply of medicines as well. Karnataka needs the @INCKarnataka vaccine against corruption,” Priyank Kharge, the chairman of the communications wing for the Congress in Karnataka, said.

He even said the claims made by Bommai during the “Janaspandana” were a “bunch of lies”.

The BJP hit back, calling Siddaramaiah as the “most corrupt chief minister” the state has ever seen.

“Siddaramaiah is threatened by the public response to just one programme of the BJP so how will he handle the next one. There are many conventions to come and Brashtaramaiah (wordplay to indicate corrupt Siddaramaiah) is already reeling like his roots are on fire,” the BJP state unit wrote on its official Twitter handle.

The BJP is also expected to table the anti-conversion bill in the upper house where it now enjoys a majority. The bill was promulgated as an ordinance in May that outlaws religious conversions, restricts and penalises any conversion of faith by “misrepresentation, force, fraud, allurement or marriage”.