Elections in Karnataka

We now have another new government in Karnataka. First it was the Congress, which was overthrown by the Janata Dal-BJP. Then came a Janata Dal government led by Kumaraswamy, followed by a very shortlived BJP government led by Yediyurappa. But then the Father-Son combo of Devegowda and Kumaraswamy torpedoed Yediyurappa's dream.This was followed by the Governor's rule and now the elections have brought in the BJP under Yediyurappa once again. Coming from Kerala, I could draw parallels between Devegowda-Kumaraswamy in Karnataka and Karunakaran-Muralidharan in Kerala.

It does provide for very interesting newspaper reading in the morning, wondering who is going to pull the rug out, from whose feet. More like one of those unending TV soap series. Takes your mind off the daily traffic deaths, the unaffordable fuel prices, the murders and rapes.

I have to confess that when in college, I got totally put off the BJP's ideologies by Advani's Rath Yathra, the Babri Masjid destruction and the riots. The riots following the Godhra massacre only reinforced this feeling. Though not a practitioner of any ideology, I always had an affinity for the ideas in Communism, of helping the poor with the rich people's money. This idealism has been tempered over the years by the practicality of capitalism. Without money making people, there would be no money to share with the poor. There were many things I didn't understand in Kerala. When the Communist party opposed capitalism so strongly, why didn't they create their own industries in their ideals, where there were no bourgeoise class, where there were only workers working for each others benefits, to provide employment to the hundreds of unemployed in kerala. They too have enough money to start a few industries of their own, but besides starting their own TV Channel and Print publications which are limited in scope in terms of employment perspective, there have been no significant employment generators.

Coming back to Karnataka, Everyone except one of the independents supporting him,have been made ministers. Wish I too had won a seat somewhere, then I too could have been made a minister. He'll need a referree, and many line referees to run this show smoothly. I doubt whether it will be smooth running, but I wish with all my heart, whoever is in power has a stable term, taking and implementing real positive changes in a normal citizens life.