Karnataka minesgate - Things media won't tell you!

Ballary Mines. Image from Deccan Herald

By Kiran K S
In less than 24 hours the Lokayukta (Ombudsmen) Justice Santosh Hegde will officially release the Karnataka Illegal Mining report. Anything can happen in the state as well as national politics after that. Speculations are abound. The English 'mainstream' TV media should be salivating for *breaking news*, to take the focus away from the *heart-breaking news* of scams of the other party, for which there seems to be a cushy soft corner.
To help you kill some time during this period, some interesting points and questions.
B.S.Yedyurappa, in short BSY, has built BJP and its earlier avatars, meticulously in Karnataka from ground up for nearly 4 decades. He achieved something impossible to even imagine just 25 years back.. a majority government headed by a 'north Indian' BJP, in a south Indian state! Kudos to him as well as the marvelous list of achievements his government has pulled off over the past three years.
You can listen to a very long list of achievements of Yedyurappa government, from the horse's mouth itself here: http://yeddyurappa.in/news-and-events/three-years-of-bountiful-development/
Since, I am not writing this to present Global Investor's meet, or 20-point implementation or the dozens of awards the state won on development efforts, lets get back to the mining part. If you followed Delhi based 'national' media, you might have only heard of 3 things: a) land scams. b) illegal mining. c) why isn't he resigning. :)
Here we go with some thought provoking questions, not in any particular order, while leaving the conclusion to you...
How many channels screaming Karnataka,Karnataka, told you that Sonia Gandhi won from the same mine district Ballary? Has anyone bothered to investigate who supported on the ground with manpower and finances?After all mining in Ballary didn't start yesterday.... even in 1999, Ballary had nearly 25% of India's iron ore deposit and all political parties had close mine connections.
Did NDTV or Times Now inform that Karnataka Lokayukta might be indicting Anil Lad, based on leaked portions of the reports? Anil became a RS MP with Sonia's blessing. If never heard of Lad family, please check this out from Congress4India website.
Amazing NDTV! They talk about politicians mining Ballary - But Sonia Gandhi, who became an MP from the same Ballary, isn't even mentioned :) How 'neutral'!
It's so funny that media channels talk about BJP's double standards on corruption, while they ignore Delhi Lokayukta's damning reports against a sitting CM and her government. We will cover that a bit later right here.
What Times Now or NDTV wouldn't tell is that, Hegde's report might show Rs.20000 crores of loss (per leaked reports) since the year 2000. In that Yedyurappa government's tally during the past 14 months might be Rs.1827 crores. Simple maths tells me that Congress and Janata Dal Secular's portions might be as high as 90% in that case. Why aren't they being slammed on national channels? You guess..
If Yedyurappa has to resign, don't you bet that he should take Deve Gowda family MPs, Congress MP Dharam Singh, UPA minister SM Krishna? By the way where is that Rameshwar Thakur who allowed plenty of mining licenses as a governor during president's rule? Hmn... I don't know if any other 'Presidents' rule ever allocated so many licenses, so 'urgently' :)
Now you want some numbers? Here we are: Mining licenses recommend by CMs versus granted by Government of India: Dharam Singh (CON): 43/33; HD Kumaraswamy (JDS) 47/22; UPA government headed by Sonia Gandhi (during President's Rule) 22/14; and Yedyurappa (BJP) 22/2. What? So Yedyurappa, the big bad boy, only got two mining licenses in the entire decades of super busy mining industry of Karnataka? Numbers are making a bit more interesting now.

Ballary Mines. Image from Deccan Herald
Now to some very thorough & hard reading exercise: The same Karnataka Lokayukta, Santosh Hegde, had published his first report in December 2008. See Page 161 from that very detailed original report copy, for which the link was just provided. Congress CM Dharam Singh was held responsible for causing a big loss of Rs.23,22,11,850to the exchequer. Nice... I didn't see any 'national' TV channels going ballistic on Dharam Singh even today, while he is prettily sitting as a Lok Sabha MP in the parliament!
Getting unnerved by numbers? Don't worry, here's is a short, but very factual summary of what Karnataka illegal mining saga is all about. Must read if you didn't get a full flow of what's happening till now - by a self professed 'vertebrate' journalist, Vicky Nanjappa.
Are we missing a big fish over here, while focusing too much on the 'evil' BJP government? Let's see.. In May 2008, BJP came to power on its own. Right after 3 months, in August of 2008, Karnataka High Court quashes 36 mine licenses sanctioned by a 'former' Chief Minister from 2003. So who could that 'former' CM be? Even Mr. Hegde skipped the one and only one, Mr. S.M. Krishna :)
How could Hegde not have ONE mention of SM Krishna's name in 2008 or 2011 mining reports (per leaked info), when High Court quashed 36 Krishna sanctioned licenses? Aha.. now you are asking the questions..
I wanted to ask at this point: Dear Mr. Hegde, 128 out of 152 Karnataka mining lease recommendationswere sent by SM Krishna, HD Kumaraswamy, Dharam Singh and Governor Thakur. Were they all 100% "pristine" & law-abiding in terms of execution? We know you might name one or two of them, but why not ALL?
Are we forgetting someone else? Let's see.. Oh yeah, in fact, it was then mining minister V Muniyappa under SM Krishna's government in 2003, who allowed quarryingeven in forest areas! Jairam Ramesh would have tore his hair in the public if it was in 2010:)
You thought that was extreme? You have more fun, just in Karnataka: It's not just in 2003, but much earlier in 2000, the same Muniyappa and SM Krishna combo had allowed private parties mine in forest areas! Hello Mr.Jairam Ramesh :)
Now that you have heard about some 'partners in crime', how many told you that Yedyurappa was the first CM of India who banned iron ore exports? (Incidentally, it was the Congress Rajya Sabha MP & Spokesperson, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was the lawyer for anti-ban teams!) Also, it was him, who ordered the Lokayukta investigation to go beyond the year 2008 duration? I guess not many.. Oh.. did you at least know, that when Karnataka banned ore export from 9 ports under its control, Manmohan Singh's UPA government didn't bother to ban the 10th port, under central control, even after repeated pleading?
After 15 questions, your head might be spinning.. So we were told that Yedyurappa was the 'baddest' guy occupying a CM's seat in India by the English media. Let's see how does the same media treat others?
First, our dearest Sheila Dikshit. The other side of Indian media immediately pops up. Four months after the Shunglu report, protests, arrests, this Delhi Congress CM is 'Surf Excel' clean :)
Not just that, do you know that even an ordinary minister of this Congress CM has guts to hit back at a hapless Lokayukta? You must be wondering by now, why is Karnataka Lokayukta is 'special' for media, while that hapless Delhi Lokayukta never comes to prime time TV shows to hit at his state's CM?
Not just corruption, but do read Kanchan Gupta's blog on how the same Sheila Dikshit & her MP son, shamefully washed hands off 66 deaths:
Aha.. is it dawning to you by now that if you are in the good book of 'some' dynasty, even the President of India will give you a clean chit herself, no matter what the Lokayukta screams!
That's enough on Delhi's CM and that state's Lokayukta. How about a couple of other cases, specifically focusing on illegal mining? It has been one year since the lateCongress CM YSR's son-in-law & brother-in-law's huge illegal mining issue in AP came up in the state assembly. Has the 'national' media done even one prime time show on this?
If I have to start writing on the *famous* Reddy brothers of Ballary, where they came from in Ananthapur district of Andhra Pradesh, what was their connection for a long number of years with the then Congress strongman YSR, I might need another blog for itself.. For this blog, its enough to mention that, Karnataka politics knew for long time who might have shielded Reddy brothers, from the other side of the border!
Even as late as 2008, large scale illegal mining was happening in Haryana, despite the ban. Did the media bother to do any investigation by itself?
Here's the most notable thing: While a big portion of Indian media's efforts were to lose sleep on why Yedyurappa hasn't resigned, Time magazine published a list of the worst abuse of power in the entire world, cutting across generations. Surprise.. surprise.. Sonia Gandhi's greatest achievement as the chairperson of UPA, just happened to be 'crowned' the all time 2nd WORST abuse of power in the world!- TIME: Top 10 Abuses of Power : India's Telecoms Scandal - By Ishaan Tharoor Tuesday, May 17, 2011 . Ironically, that page was written by none other than Kerala Congress MP's Shashi Tharoor's son, Ishaan :)
So, are you still wondering if Yedyurappa will resign ? Will he? Should he? Should he alone, while the others mentioned above, roam free?
Your guess is as good as mine.

This post first appeared on @kiranks's blog.