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Land of 'opportunity': The great BSY bungle

BANGALORE: The BJP is sounding a war-cry over the 2G spectrum scandal and the Adarsh Society scam, even as its own barn is afire in Karnataka. In just over a week, revelations of land scams involving hundreds of crores of rupees in Bangalore and elsewhere in Karnataka have raised a stink over the first BJP government in the South. If the party bosses act, land may finally turn out to be the millstone around B S Yeddyurappa and his 29-month-old government riven with controversies from almost the first week of its existence. Allegations point to the chief minister's direct hand in doling out land via denotification to his family and lieutenants. His sons B Y Raghavendra and B Y Vijayendra; home minister R Ashoka and state BJP chief K S Eswarappa are among beneficiaries of this largesse. As more such skeletons continue to tumble out, documents show that denotification was done ignoring advice of officials. The land transfers allegedly favouring partymen and family tracts fall into three categories: *Prime land allocated for public projects and layouts *Industrial land in Bangalore and a few other pockets in the state *Sites which form part of the chief minister's discretionary quota. Preceding this storm was another scam involving IT minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, a trusted aide of the CM. Naidu is facing allegations of illegal compensation for industrial land worth over Rs 100 crore. His son, Katta Jagadish, was arrested and is out on bail after allegedly trying to bribe a witness in the racket. These deals have deeply embarrassed partymen at the national level who are fighting the UPA over the 2G spectrum controversy. Yeddyurappa's brazen defence of these highly suspect deals on Monday has made matters worse. He claimed he was following what other regimes had done. To put down the opposition parties he has alleged the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Siddaramaiah, had asked for denotification of land in favour of a relative. He got unabashed when he said, "What's wrong if my sons are given land? Should they not set up any industry?" For now, the central leadership has spoken in stout defence of the chief minister insisting he had done no wrong and that the charges were baseless. The land scams followed another shocking multi-crore scandal: the illegal mining scam which according to a Lokayukta report involves several thousand crores of rupees. Earlier, this summer, officials seized iron ore worth Rs 4,000 crore being illegally shipped out of Belekeri port. The Reddy brothers who preside over the mining lands of Bellary are lying low now thanks to the investigation into their activities. But as fierce rival JD(S) claims, it was the mining money bags that installed the Yeddurappa government over two years ago when it fell a whisker short of a simple majority. Operation Lotus, a way of winning over rival candidates by getting them to resign from the parent party and helping them get elected soon after saw the government on its feet. But two rebellions — one led by the powerful Reddy brothers in November 2009 which almost brought the government to its knees and another, early this year overtly backed by the JD(S) — continued to rattle the regime. Yeddyurappa's inability to quell voices of dissent has had the party leadership step in on more than one occasion. But ironically, the intervention saw his wings being clipped and he was left as hapless as ever trying to contend with the enemy within. Yet, fortunate to have won by-elections over the months, Yeddyurappa managed to stay put. This time around he may find the situation untenable. For the BJP which sought to write a new chapter in its political history and springing open the doors to the Gateway to the South, this may end up as its epilogue.

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