In the Republic of Bellary, Reddy is no longer king

Somasekhara Reddy hands over his phone to his aide, saying he gets too many calls from people claiming to be lawyers from Hyderabad. “They somehow get my number and claim they will manage to get my brother Janardhana Reddy out of jail, by hook or by crook. I tell them when someone as good as Ram Jethmalani is fighting our case, why do we need your underhand help,” he says. Listening to Somasekhara Reddy’s pious talk, you wouldn’t think the same Reddy brothers are accused of trying to bribe a Judge in a Hyderabad court with Rs 100 crore to secure Janardhana Reddy’s bail. I am in Bellary, infamously referred to as the `Republic of Bellary’ by Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde in his report on illegal mining in July 2011. Since Janardhana Reddy’s arrest in September that year, the `Republic’ has all but collapsed and its effects on the Reddy family are there for all to see. [caption id=“attachment_734405” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Reddy family is no longer the force it once was in Bellary. IBN-Live[/caption] Somasekhara Reddy is today a bitter man, angry with the manner in which BJP’s central leadership dumped his younger brother. That the family enjoyed the patronage of Sushma Swaraj since 1999, when she contested the Lok Sabha election against Sonia Gandhi from Bellary, is well documented and once Janardhana Reddy became a political hot potato, he was dropped in no time by Swaraj and friends. But despite the BJP abandoning Janardhana Reddy in his hour of crisis, eldest brother Karunakara Reddy chose to stay with the BJP and is fighting the assembly elections on its ticket from Harapanahalli. Somasekhara Reddy is with the BSR Congress floated by Janardhana Reddy’s close aide, B Sriramulu, but declined to contest the assembly polls at the last minute. Janardhana Reddy continues to languish behind bars and senior police officers say his chances of coming out, in the face of a watertight case that damns him completely, are extremely remote. Those in the know of what is going on within the politically divided Reddy parivaar say the blame game is on. When I ask Somasekhara Reddy the reason Karunakara Reddy chose not to desert the BJP, he vaguely describes his elder brother as ``a man of principles’’. The fact of the matter is that Karunakara Reddy is playing it safe politically, delinking his fortunes from that of his brothers, because BSR Congress is unlikely to survive beyond this election. Somasekhara Reddy himself does not predict more than three assembly seats for the party. Moreover, the party is also cash-strapped with the CBI and the police tightening the screws on their finances. The fact that Somasekhara Reddy refused to contest also is a giveaway to which way the wind is blowing. He won on the BJP ticket from Bellary city constituency in 2008. In the civic elections in Bellary city this March, the Congress won 26 of the 35 seats, with the BSR Congress managing just half a dozen seats. The result would have given Somasekhara Reddy an indication of things to come and for a family unused to political defeat, being vanquished would have killed their air of invincibility. Losing the election in their den of Bellary has cast an official stamp on the end of their empire. Bellary at one time was the most coveted posting for bureaucrats, and according to the grapevine, some officers were even willing to bribe ministers to spend time in the lap of the iron ore mines. Janardhana Reddy and several other mine owners were `wonderful friends’, so long as the officer was willing to turn a blind eye to what was happening under his nose. Arrogance and ambition proved to be Janardhana Reddy’s Achilles heel. He tried to concentrate too much political power in his family - Karunakara and he were ministers, so was Sriramulu and Somasekhara was the chairman of Karnataka Milk Federation. Janardhana Reddy revelled in the overconfidence that the BJP government in Bangalore was in his pocket, ensuring his safety and that there was nothing money could not buy. For everything else, there was always political clout. In Bellary, I meet many mine owners who claim Reddy owes them money. And huge sums at that. Some mention 30 crores, others 50 and one even 90 crores. None has any hope of getting that money back. Proceeding legally is not an option because that would open a can of worms because during the time Janardhana Reddy was the de facto king of Bellary, everyone had a ball, flouting rules with impunity. The fact that 49 other mining leases were cancelled by the Supreme court last week is proof that the system had all but collapsed in Bellary between 2003 and 2010. Will the assembly elections change things for the better? It looks unlikely as all the parties have once again fielded mining barons in the district. And tainted ones at that. The Congress has fielded Anil Lad and Abdul Wahab and the BJP Anand Singh. Leases of companies belonging to all three candidates were among the 49 revoked by the apex court. But wiser from Reddy’s experience, these politicians, if elected, may temper their flamboyance. Because they know Bellary will remain under the microscope and anything unlawful they may do, will get magnified many times over. The optimistic lot in Bellary believes that with Reddy’s arrest, the Republic of Bellary has re-united with the Republic of India. It has indeed been a long journey from the day Gali Janardhana Reddy bragged in the Upper House of the Karnataka Assembly in 2009 : ``Bellary is mine’’. In the end, it turned out to be a story of a man who mined more than he could chew.