JOIN USThe climax to the end of tenure of Justice (retd) Santosh Hegde as Karnataka Lokayukta could not have been more dramatic. The top ombudsman has made an unprecedented recommendation to prosecute chief minister B S Yeddyurappa under the Prevention of Corruption Act and removal of three of his ministers from Cabinet for their respective roles in the illegal mining scandal.
Though the mind-boggling 25,228 page report running into 31 chapters and thousands of annexures detailing one of the biggest frauds in Independent India will obviously take several days to study, the indictment of the main dramatis personae is so strong that the BJP’s central leadership was left with no option but to ask Yeddyurappa to resign immediately. The BJP parliamentary board’s unanimous decision to ask Yeddyurappa to make way for the election of a successor is the appropriate step under the given circumstances.
There is possibly no evidence to show that Yeddyurappa or his family members were directly involved in illegal mining, but the investigation by the Lokayukta lays bare the chief minister and his government’s brazen support to and complicity in the looting of the State’s resources over an extended period of time.
That the previous Congress and JD(S) governments too encouraged illegal iron ore mining has been brought out in the Lokayukta report which estimated a loss of Rs 16,085 crore to the exchequer between 2006 and 2010 and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy also stands indicted. But the Yeddyurappa government, with mining barons B Janardhana Reddy, Karunakara Reddy and Sriramulu being part of the Cabinet, took the plundering of iron ore to a different level with the entire state machinery acting at their behest and for their benefit.
Even after Lokayukta’s first report in 2008, that the Yeddyurappa government did nothing to stop the illegalities eventually cooked its goose. Yeddyurappa has shown signs of rebellion by not resigning from his post even hours after being directed to do so by the party central leadership. Of course, replacing him with another leader acceptable to all, including Yeddyurappa himself, is not going to be a smooth affair.
The situation is all the more delicate as the government stands on a thin majority and there are already deep divisions within the State BJP legislature party. But having taken the plunge, the central leadership will have to crack the whip and enforce its authority – perhaps, regardless of the consequences. There is no other choice before it.