Karnataka: Office Perks

THE RECOVERY OF NEARLY ₹100 CRORE in cash besides gold, diamonds and luxury watches in a string of Income Tax Department (ITD) raids in Karnataka has once again brought the unholy con­tractor-politician nexus into focus. R Ambikapathy, vice president of the Karnataka State Contractors’ Association and president of the BBMP Contractors’ Association, was among those raided, with ₹42 crore found in cash from under a bed on a disused property belonging to his family at RT Nagar in north Bengaluru. Ambikapathy’s son A Pradeep, who has a real estate business, has sought to clear his father’s name, claiming that the money was his and that it was obtained by selling property. Ironically, ahead of the Assembly elections in Karnataka earlier this year, Ambikapathy had been vocal in supporting Congress’ allegations that the outgo­ing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had been charging “40 per cent commission” for public works. The ‘40 per cent sarkara’ slogan is believed to have struck a chord with voters, who gave Con­gress a decisive mandate and its biggest win in the state since 1989.

Ambikapathy’s wife Ashwathamma is a former cor­porator of Ward No 95, and sister of former Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasamurthy. BJP sources say that the contractor is a well-known “collection agent” for Congress and allege that the money was meant to be routed to Telangana, which is going to polls next month. “The very fact that over ₹40 crore has been found at a house linked to a contractor days after the state govern­ment cleared bills worth ₹650 crore is an indication of kickbacks to clear bills. The Karnataka State Contractors’ Association made baseless allegations against our government of taking 40 per cent commission. But now it looks like the association has itself become a commission collection centre. This needs to be probed,” former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said. BJP President JP Nadda accused Congress of turning Karnataka into its “ATM”. “Congress and corruption are two sides of the same coin. Congress govern­ments have made Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan ATMs of corruption. It wants to make Telangana and Madhya Pradesh similar ATMs to loot people’s money,” he said.

Congress has sought to deflect these allegations, with Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar counter-alleging that the money is in fact linked to BJP. “I have been told that a lot of diaries have been seized. More revelations may surface. It is BJP’s brainchild,” he said. Sources in the K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in Telangana say Congress has already moved nearly ₹1,500 crore to Telangana in preparation for the upcoming state polls that will see both Congress and BJP vying to boot BRS out of office. The average off-the-books spend per constituency in Telangana is expected to be ₹ 70-100 crore. “Recent bypolls saw the parties spend hundreds of crores,” says Sravanth Devabhaktini, a campaign management professional and co-founder of PsyBe Labs, a data science startup in Hyderabad. “Elections in Telangana are like an extended party for everyone, with food and liquor flowing freely. Reports say that after the high-voltage bypoll in Munugode late last year [BRS won, beating the BJP candidate], the weavers in the town were unable to resume work for several weeks because their hands were shaky from drinking so much,” he adds. Congress, he says, will no doubt need money power to take on BRS in Telangana— money that its candidates will be hard pressed to contribute from their personal funds. Leaders like Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who have recently switched camps, leaving BRS to join Congress, are expected to fund the party’s campaign in several districts.

The matter of illegal spending—apart from the declared campaign expenses—and illicit funding remains a deeply troubling issue in Indian politics, says Trilochan Sastry, who co-founded the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) over two decades ago with his then colleagues at IIM Ahmedabad to help curb criminality and corruption by analysing electoral affidavits. “Bribing with cash, liquor, pressure cookers, etc is not only a viola­tion of the law; it also skews the democratic playing field. Today, by and large, only people with access to a lot of money are able to stand for election. And when this money is used to win elections, you can be sure that the legislators will find ways to recoup their investment,” he says. In the 2018 Assembly election, BRS, then known as TRS, and Congress each fielded wealthy candidates— K Rajgopal Reddy, with declared assets of over ₹300 crore, and Marri Janardhan Reddy with ₹161 crore were the richest—as a foolproof way to bag crucial seats.

“Money is often but not always the deciding factor when it comes to choosing a candidate,” says a BJP leader from Karnataka. “I personally turned down a candidate who brought ₹200 crore—half of it for the party, and the rest for the campaign—besides offering to gift a large property to me. He was fielded by Congress and won the election.” Among rich aspirants, there are two kinds, says the vet­eran leader: “One who is so rich that he wants to spend the money to acquire the status of an MLA, and the other who is rich and wants to get richer by coming to power”. There is no dearth of either in Karnataka politics, he says, admitting that corruption was one of the main issues that cost BJP the election. “People could clearly see how corrupt some of the cabinet ministers were, and so, they voted them out—it was not a mandate against the party, because we have retained our vote share, but against select corrupt individuals,” he says. “Now, the situation under the Congress government is getting worse by the day. You see, when you have a coalition, or factions within the party, the commission percentage tends to go up. Each side is forced to turn a blind eye to what the other is doing, to keep the peace,” he adds.

“It is certainly more lucrative to be elected to power in a rich southern state like Karnataka,” says Sridhar Pabbisetty, a public policy expert who contested the 2013 Karnataka Assembly elec­tions from Bengaluru’s Hebbal constituency. “Very few people win by the rulebook. My opponent spent a thousand times what I did on the campaign. There is obviously a reason people are so desper­ate to win elections.” A look at the heavy lobbying that goes on for the posts of boards and corporations under the state government reveals what is at stake. The last time Congress was in power in Karnataka, a party worker in Belagavi was caught with a forged ‘recommendation letter’ from Rahul Gandhi to clinch the post of chairman of North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corpora­tion (NWKRTC).

Sidestepping the allegations of corruption against Congress, Karnataka IT-BT Minister Priyank Kharge told Open that “it is BJP which stands accused of charging money from candidates in return for tickets”. “As an election approaches, the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation are out on the streets against the opposition, whichever party it may be. That is how BJP functions. BJP’s newfound love for being earnest is a mask. It has been 150 days since they were booted out of power and they are still unable to elect a leader of the opposition to defend their self-respect,” Kharge said.

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