Will Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot sanction the prosecution of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment case? The ruling Congress fears that Gehlot might follow the footsteps of his predecessor Hansraj Bhardwaj, who, in 2011, had sanctioned prosecution of the then chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa following the latter’s indictment in the Lokayukta report on illegal mining case.
Bhardwaj had sanctioned prosecution of Yediyurappa under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, for his involvement in the illegal mining of iron ore in the state and charges of illegal land denotification and nepotism.
Today, the script is the same, but players seem to have changed. Siddaramaiah finds himself cornered, even as fears of Gehlot doing a Bharadwaj cannot be ruled out and the infighting among the CM aspirants is no longer hidden.
Last time, two advocates—Sirajin Basha and K.N. Balaraj—requested sanction of the governor to prosecute the CM facing “grave allegations of corruption”. This time, an RTI activist has petitioned the governor seeking his nod to prosecute Siddaramaiah. The governor issued a show-cause notice to the chief minister after RTI activist T.J. Abraham on July 26 sought his consent to prosecute the CM alleging massive irregularities in the MUDA site allotment and the involvement of CM’s family in the scam.
Bharadwaj’s decision to allow prosecution of BJP’s veteran leader Yediyurappa, an incumbent CM, had caused huge embarrassment to the BJP. Yediyurappa, who had installed the first BJP government in South India in 2008, had to suffer ignominy as the first incumbent chief minister to be prosecuted and subsequently jailed.
The two circumstances are different as no investigating agency has filed a report indicting the current CM.
The state cabinet, which was chaired by deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar (after CM recused from the meeting) on August 1, had passed a resolution seeking to advise the governor to withdraw the show-cause notice issued to the chief minister and to reject the petition of the RTI activist. The Congress ministers also claimed that the chief secretary had already responded to an earlier notice issued by the governor and that the sanction for prosecution was uncalled for.
“The government has constituted a one-member commission of retired Justice P.N. Desai to probe into the case. The governor should at least wait for the report before taking any further action as it concerns the chief minister and a democratically elected government,” said Shivakumar.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties—BJP and JDS—which are on a joint 7-day padayatra from Bengaluru to Mysuru, are demanding the CM’s resignation and a CBI probe into the alleged scam. They mocked that the CM’s “clean image” had been tainted. Leader of the opposition R. Ashok who, along with state party chief B Y Vijayendra and Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, leading the padayatra slammed the chief minister for making “false claims”.
“The 3 acres 16 guntas of land in Devanur layout gifted to CM’s wife by her brother is illegal as the land belongs to a dalit family and was purchased without the consent of the legal heirs. Also, the MUDA, under political pressure, denotified the land which was already acquired, developed and distributed to the beneficiaries. In 2021, MUDA, under its 50:50 scheme for land-losers, ordered allotment of 14 residential sites measuring a total of 38,284 sq. ft in the upscale Vijayanagar 3rd and 4th stages, instead of Devanur layout, despite the latter having several vacant sites, as the land price in Vijayanagar is high. This smacks of nepotism and corruption. The CM should have surrendered the sites if he is non-corrupt. In fact, MUDA has illegally allotted more than 500 sites to CM’s close aides,” claimed Ashok.
“When will the P.N. Desai committee give the report? The CM is buying time by hurriedly appointing a committee,” mocked the BJP leaders.
Amid protests, the governor’s visit to Delhi has set tongues wagging in the political circles as sources claimed that Gehlot had had a series of meetings with legal experts. Even as he is examining the documents pertaining to the alleged scam, the governor also summoned the petitioner (Abraham) to Raj Bhavan seeking further ‘clarifications’ after the Congress dubbed him as a “blackmailer”.
Siddaramaiah who had earlier refused to reply to the show-cause notice stating the governor was a “puppet” in the hands of the BJP has now quietly replied to the notice and dubbed the allegation as “baseless and unwarranted”. He is said to have submitted documents to substantiate that the site allotment was “as per procedure”.
Siddaramaiah, who is facing the heat over the MUDA scam and also the Valmiki corporation scam (siphoning off funds) which is being probed by SIT, ED and CBI, is fighting a lone battle to get his name cleared. On August 9, Siddaramaiah will be hosting a mega convention in Mysuru, his home turf, to counter all the allegations of corruption.
The governor is weighing his options and could order an independent inquiry or issue a second notice to the chief minister. However, if the governor sanctions prosecution, it would be a major jolt to the ruling Congress and the incumbent chief minister.
AICC general secretaries K.C. Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala, who visited Bengaluru recently, cracked the whip on disgruntled legislators and party leaders and asked them to back the chief minister. The party is mulling over seeking legal recourse, too, if need be. The party high command has decided to launch a nation-wide agitation against the "high-handedness" of the governor backed by the Centre.
Interestingly, this is not the first time that Siddaramaiah has been charged of illegal denotification of land. In 2015, during his first stint as the chief minister, then leader of opposition Jagadish Shettar had alleged that Siddaramaiah had illegally denotified 541 acres of land in the Arkavathy layout to raise funds for the 2014 parliamentary elections despite objections from the Urban Development department. The irregularities were reported from Rachenahalli, Jakkur among others, the BJP had claimed.
To counter the protests, Siddaramaiah had ordered an inquiry by a retired judge of the Karnataka High Court, Justice Kempanna into all land transactions since 2003, till the revised modification scheme of 2014 for 1,766.07 acres (as submitted to the high court). But the fate of the inquiry remained a mystery.
This time, Siddaramaiah will perhaps need to do better to cleanse himself of the taint and to ensure the stability of his government.
