Same old rent-seeking | The Indian Express

Same old rent-seeking | The Indian Express

Written by Janaki Nair |Updated: July 16, 2019 12:05:22 am

The writer is professor of history, JNU, Delhi, and author of ‘Mysore Modern: Rethinking the Region under Princely Rule’.

Same old rent-seeking

Politicians yearn to lay hands on Karnataka’s public goods and natural assets, control its bureaucracy. The present political crisis is a reflection of this impulse.

Of late, Karnataka politics, which has had a colourful “chicken-eating Brahmin” CM, has become better known for the chief minister who was jailed on corruption charges. (Illustration by Suvajit Dey)

For the first time in many years, Karnataka may break with its long-established norm of having a state government that is not formed by the same party that holds office at the Centre. Many exemplary traditions forged in this state usually went unnoticed — until the “discovery of Karnataka” during the 2018 election. How far we have travelled from the exceptional leadership of a Devaraj Urs, arguably the most important non-communist Indian leader committed to land reforms and social welfare, or an Abdul Nazir (“Neer”/water) saab, who pioneered an exemplary water policy in the 1980s! Karnataka should also have been better known for its decentralisation of panchayati raj institutions and its reservations for women long before the nation picked up those leads. And it was none other than the current Speaker, K R Ramesh Kumar, who as health minister in 2017, attempted to tame the rapacious private health establishment in Karnataka.