Story behind a doctor’s degree
Though Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is known to call a spade a spade, he has generally spared his Cabinet colleagues a taste of his forthrightness. This one was an exception.
At a recent inauguration of a nursery school building in Mysuru, Mr. Siddaramaiah not only referred to the educational qualifications of Minister for Public Works H.C. Mahadevappa(in picture), but also publicly discussed the circumstances in which the Minister got his MBBS degree. Apparently, Dr. Mahadevappa couldn’t complete his medical course as he entered electoral politics in the 1990s. “In order to get his medical degree, he wrote the examination after he became Health Minister in the late 1990s,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said much to mirth of the gathering while Dr. Mahadevappa squirmed in his seat.
Sensing his his discomfiture, Mr. Siddaramaiah quickly added that Dr. Mahadevappa had cleared the exams on his own without using his clout as Minister.
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From one post
to another
Elections to the State Legislative Assembly are nearly 18 months away, but several retired bureaucrats have started plunging into active politics, ostensibly to continue their ‘public service’. In less than a week, two retired IAS officers — K. Shivaram and C. Somashekar — joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mr. Shivaram, who has acted in 10 Kannada films, joined the Congress in 2013 soon after retirement, but within six months, moved to JD (S) where he unsuccessfully contested the 2014 general elections. Mr. Somashekar, a close aide of State BJP chief B.S. Yeddyurappa, is culturally active in his community’s organisations.
Bureaucrats entering politics is not new in Karnataka. Post retirement, many senior IAS and IPS officers have opted to join national or regional parties. Former IPS officer K.C. Ramamurthy recently became a Rajya Sabha MP. Former IAS officers Ashok Kumar Manoli and S. Puttaswamy joined the Congress just before the 2013 elections. In the same league are former BBMP Commissioner S. Subrahmanya, former police officers G. Shankarnarayana, Subhash Bharani, and Shankar M. Bidari. Former top police officers H.T. Sangliana and P. Kodandaramaiah have won parliamentary elections. In all, the hop from administration to lawmaking seems to be getting popular.
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Education in ‘transparency’
Soon after the Chief Minister reviewed the programmes of the Primary and Secondary Education Department recently, Education Minister Tanvir Sait(in picture)was in a hurry to announce the several decisions that were taken. He said the decisions were broadly about raising the quality of education, recruiting teachers and curbing malpractices during examinations.
Asked what were the specific measures against malpractices, he merely said “stringent steps” were being taken but did not say what they were. Two new sets of uniforms are being supplied to five lakh girl students of government high schools, but the Minister was clueless about the colour of the uniforms or their cost.
To every query about each decision, the Minister maintained that “all details cannot be told to the media”. Perhaps Mr. Sait needs to be educated that the public that pays for all these activities as taxes does need to be told about them after all.
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‘Break a leg, legally’
Raitha Sangha faction leader Amin Pasha Diddigi turned verbally violent while interacting with Raichur journalists recently. Mr. Diddigi, who is the State secretary of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (Kodihalli Chandrashekhar faction), vehemently opposed the forced recovery of farm loans by banks when consecutive droughts and price crash had hit the State’s farmers.
He suggested that farmers should “legally” break the legs of loan recovery agents when they visit their villages.
When a journalist asked him to name the Act that allows such an action, Mr. Diddigi withdrew the “legally” part of his suggestion — but not the suggestion of how to handle the recovery agents.
Laiqh Khan
Nagesh Prabhu
Kumar Buradikatti
