Karnataka is a mini India. Historically, its culture and heritage, both socially and politically, have always been vantage points. Its development is unparalleled since re-organisation, with 7.2% growth in GDP year-on-year and 16% increase in receipts with a fiscal deficit under 2.7%. Its pivotal position is due largely to its climate, work culture, and conducive and inclusive political ambiance. Bengaluru, its crown jewel, thrived at the cost of an imbalance disfavouring Kittur and Kalyana Karnataka regions.
However, ruling parties seem to be realising that this imbalance may affect Karnataka negatively. The people continue to take the government policy of five guarantees with a pinch of salt.
Since its formation, the Congress government has suffered from issues in leadership, discussions about a failing economy, increasing prices, increased taxation, corruption, and crime. The Opposition on the other hand has responded ineffectively, realising neither its role nor responsibility.
Natural disasters and departmental scams have weakened the moral position of the state leadership, with the largest contributor being unresolved issues within MUDA, denting the leadership of two-time Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Many utsavas – like Siddaramotsava – have only made Congress appear sillier, seen as vain defences by a party cleaning up its image. Sex scandals from a known political family, political links to honey traps, couch stories in Sandalwood, rapes, murders, and other crimes, and communal- and caste-based clashes have all undeniably hurt the gentle image of Karnataka.
A distasteful fallout between the constitutional head and the democratic head of the state has reignited age-old strains with the Centre, putting before intellectuals the need to re-examine the workings of Indian federalism and its cooperative nature, and calling for a reinterpretation of the provisions of the Constitution in light of consequent Supreme Court judgments.
In education – be it NEP or the establishment of new universities – the state has failed to demonstrate maturity or understanding of Higher Education and failed to separate education from politics. This has dragged Karnataka ten steps backwards, compared to its progressive policies from the periods of S Nijalingappa and Ramakrishna Hegde.
The callousness with which education is treated is symbolic of the retrograde thinking of the Congress leadership today. The state failed to prioritise expenditure for education and the revised NEP is another mirage of an ideologues’ paradise.
From engineering to medicine to universities in general, Karnataka – once known for its quality education – is now a desert. Politically, public discourses among the leadership of the three major parties has continuously downgraded the image of the state.
An assortment of scams; embittered personal rivalries; casual flouting of law and order; unnecessary communal flare-ups; issues of Waqf; divisions within the Opposition; and rampant polarisation, cheapish public discourses – leaders in all these parties have been painted as nitwits by visual media. The 24X7 media is awestruck with politics and chintzy news, losing its intellectual and watchdog obligation unfortunately. It’s time they act dependable.
It is unfortunate, on the other hand, that too much media is eroding the image of good leaders vying for visibility. Paradise is troubled. Karnataka’s only hope is that 2025 will arrest this decline and boost the standards of politics and social ethos for which the state was once known.