Yeddy's revenge: Was he the wronged one?

BS Yedyurappa won’t ever win any popular vote as chief ministerial choice. Even his party, the BJP, would be hesitant to flaunt him as its showpiece leader. He has lost the perception game and would never be seen as an honest politician and capable leader. But he has every reason to feel aggrieved about the unceremonious way he was dumped as chief minister. What was he punished for? As it appears after the high court ruling, the Lokayukta report indicting him in serious cases of corruption did not stand on strong legal ground. The charges against him were just accusations not with much merit. He was shown the door by the party after the media created a rucous over the report. With Team Anna building pressure on the Congress-led UPA, the BJP was in a hurry to take the moral high ground. Yedyurappa was the victim. However, nobody would believe his protestation of innocence at that point. He was already losing the perception game and it did not help that he was into political antics not behoving a chief minister – remember his challenge to HD Kumaraswamy to face the truth test before Lord Manjunath? This is not to say that he is in the clear now. The Lokayukta has moved the Supreme Court, which will take the final call on his fate. [caption id=“attachment_251852” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“On a comeback. PTI”]  [/caption] But as things stand now, he is not the devil he was made out to be. If he wants to be back as chief minister, it is not an unfair demand – this is if corruption was the only reason for his removal. He commands strong loyalty among MLAs—the ‘resort politics’ over the last few days reflect this—and good support among the Lingayats, an influential community when it comes to electoral politics. His supporters refused to attend the Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday, the day Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda was to present his first budget. He also sent jitters in the party by putting up his own candidate for Rajya Sabha polls against the party’s nominee. The humiliation on the party was complete when the BJP candidate lost the Udipi-Chikmaglur Lok Sabha constituency to the Congress due to Yedyurappa’s non-cooperation. If he has been arm-twisting the party to kow-tow to his wishes, he is extracting his revenge. But, the bigger issue here is the circumstances of his removal. Should someone be removed just on the basis of a report that does not have much legal merit? Who is responsible for the consequent political instability? Here’s what the Karnataka high court observed. “He (Yedyurappa) was condemned unheard as the Lokayukta violated principles of natural justice by not issuing notice to him before making the accusation,” a division bench said. It also said that no material was produced by the Lokayukta to establish that he had favoured any company. “Even during the arguments on the petition, a specific question was put to counsel for the Lokayukta to produce any material to connect the petitioner with the alleged offence but he was mum,” the court said, adding, “Suspicion cannot be a ground to tarnish the image and reputation of a person holding a constitutional post.” Like it or not, this was clear vindication of what Yedyurappa has been maintaining all along. Isn’t the court’s observation an indictment of the Lokayukta – the office was held by Santosh Hegde, a member of Team Anna, then? If Lokayukta’s report was not final what was the reason for the demand of the chief minister’s scalp? A little bit of wait could not have made a great deal of difference. It was high drama orchestrated by the Lokayukta and the media that failed Yedyurappa. He even faced the humiliation of being arrested by the Lokayukta police. Interestingly, the lynch mob media have gone silent about the high court verdict. Should not that make us question the sense of responsibility of the Lokayukta and the media too? Yedyurappa may not be one of the best guys around but he certainly has the right to have a fair hearing.