While the politics of deceit and betrayal cast their ominous signs with portents of Karnataka being written off in the national view as one where political norms and standards have touched their lowest ebb, the sullied reputation of the State was not only salvaged but rose considerably in international view, thanks to doctors who lit up the life of Lakshmi.

Never in the legislative history of Karnataka, which goes back to the days of Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, a game of the kind of deceit, betrayal and rank opportunism as practiced was witnessed in the last three months. The collapse of the Yediyurappa Government, hardly one week after its induction, had not come as a surprise for those who are aware of the Machiavellian tactics and manipulative politics of Mr H D Deve Gowda, but what was surprising was the political naiveté exhibited by Mr B S Yediyurappa in the entire two-month-long sordid political drama that culminated in the collapse of the Government.

Here is a senior BJP leader who, having been betrayed by Mr Deve Gowda, in not transferring power on the appointed day, October 3, withdraws support to JD(S) and launches ‘Dharma Yuddha’ after receiving blessings from the revered Siddaganga seer and while he was on the popular crest of sympathy waves, is lured by Mr Deve Gowda (who offered JD(S) support to the BJP to form the Government), cuts shorts his ‘Dharma Yuddha’ campaign and gets trapped.

What happened thereafter is a part of history, an ongoing history, what with the State experiencing a spell of President’s Rule. The coming months in the New Year will see hectic political developments. It is to be seen as to how long the BJP will ensure to sustain, ‘Gowda’s betrayal card’, to cash in votes, especially from the preponderant Lingayat segment.

In refreshing contrast to the fast changing political activities in the State, Bangalore was brought into international focus as a team of 36 dedicated and conscientious doctors gave rebirth to two-year-old Lakshmi on Deepavali.

While the print medium was updating news on its web about the complex surgery that was going on in the Sparsh Hospital at Narayana Health Centre, TV channels the world over were engaged in giving a live coverage of the progress of the operation. When after a marathon, 24-hour-long surgery, the doctors disengaged the parasitic twin from Lakshmi and held it separately, it was celebration time not only in the operation theatre, but the world over. Bangalore, which is being hailed as the IT hub, came to be focused for a good part of the month as a great medical centre, thanks to Dr Sharan Shivaraj Patil and his team. Lakshmi, a kid from a small village in Bihar, in whose search Dr Patil went in his divine odyssey and brought to Bangalore, has since returned to her native place.

Cauvery dispute

The spectra of the 125-year-old dispute over the sharing of Cauvery water between the two major contenders, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, haunted again in the beginning of this year as the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal gave its final order, which virtually rocked the boat of Karnataka.

According to the Tribunal Order, Tamil Nadu was to get over 419 tmc and Karnataka had to content itself with 270 tmc, rendering the latter to give 192 tmc to Tamil Nadu. There was a spontaneous outburst of anger all over Karnataka and the State as one entity observed bundh. Happily, there was no recrudescence of violent activities as the State had witnessed in 1992 when the Tribunal gave its interim order on the dispute.

The State Government, on its part, announced its decision to file a review petition before the Tribunal. However, it finally decided to challenge the order both in the Supreme Court as well as before the Tribunal.

The Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Ambareesh announced his resignation both as a minister and as an MP to protest against the order. The Supreme Court admitted the special leave petition filed by Karnataka and two other states challenging the order and referred the same to a larger Bench.

New districts

This year saw the constitution of two new districts, taking the number of districts in Karnataka to 29. Ramanagar, which was carved out of Bangalore Rural, consists of the following taluks - Channapatna, Kanakapura, Ramanagara and Magadi.

Chikkaballapur was formed by bifurcating Kolar district and has the following taluks - Gowribidanur, Gudibanda, Bagepalli, Chikkaballapur, Sidalaghatta and Chintamani.

Arrack ban

There were sceptics who doubted whether the Budget proposals to ban the sale of arrack and lottery tickets, as announced by Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister B S Yediyurappa would be implemented at all. But the Government lived up to its commitment.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy announced that except in case of Belgaum, the Centre had accepted the State’s proposal to rename the other 10 cities. However, the Centre has to complete the long process and the State may have to wait for some more months.

Stray dogs

Stray dogs in the State made front page stories. Even Kannada TV channels continued to focus on them, giving gory accounts of the drive launched by a number of municipalities to eliminate rabid and ferocious dogs. In the process, there was indiscriminate killing. The drive followed the killing of two boys in Bangalore by stray dogs.

Kumble

Anil Kumble, the player who stepped into the shoes of legendary leg spinner B Chandrashekar and starred in many an Indian victory in the subsequent years, announced his retirement from the one-dayer.
“My shoulders are still strong and I feel I have more cricket left in me. As such, I would continue to play test cricket,” he said. Yes, he has proved it now.

The Kannada literary world and the world of greens suffered an irreparable loss in the passing away of Poornachandra Tejaswi. Tejaswi’s writing on ‘Parisara’, environment and ecology, especially touched the hearts of young environmentalists.

Here is what Ms Lakshmi Bharadwaj, a PU final year student of Kumaran’s College in Bangalore, writes in her blog (mysoreblogpark.blogspot.com) 

“Mr Poornachandra Tejaswi's face was incomplete in my memory... but now, it is finally complete. I saw his photo on TV, and understood how he looked like... it is complete, but a bit too late. I can never get that photograph with him now, but I can remember. I will remember him forever, not as a bearded old man, but as a faceless friend who has supported me and revealed a new path for a life connected with nature. I want to follow the path he has laid out for me, and connect with nature.

No, Mr Tejaswi, you have not left me, yet...you are alive through your books.”

Siddaganga Swamiji

The Karnataka Government honoured itself by honouring centenarian Sri Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddaganga Mutt, Tumkur, by conferring on him the prestigious ‘Karnataka Ratna’, the highest civilian award of the State. The award, comprising a citation on a golden leaf and 50 gm gold medal with the State logo, was presented to the Swamiji in the Vidhana Soudha.

BMIC

The running feud between State Government and Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) took new turns with each passing month as the Government went on dealing one blow after another, even as NICE went on to seek legal remedy.

The Government took two major decisions in August - one, not to execute sale deeds to any infrastructure project, including the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project (BMIC), which is being executed by NICE. Two, the Government decided to seek permission to invite global tenders, subject to final decision of the Supreme Court.

Telgi sentence

In the first and the most important in the series of 49 cases related to multi billion rupee fake stamp paper scam, its prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi was sentenced to 13 years in jail and was fined more than Rs 100 crore. Saying “Sorry” to the country for his crime, Telgi said that his wife had persuaded him to admit his guilt unconditionally.