People's Democracy

 

Save Democracy – BJP Govt Must Quit

 

SITARAM Yechury, Polit Bureau member of the  Communist Party of India  (Marxist) inaugurated the convention ‘ Save Democracy – BJP Government Must Quit’ organised at Bengaluru on November 13 by the Karnataka state committee of the Party. At the convention following details of the scams under the BJP government headed by Yeddyurappa were highlighted:

 

Involvement of Chief Minister’s family:

1. a) 30 acres of land has been denotified near Mangalore to develop an Entertainment Park to favour Prakash Shetty, a big hotel owner

b) Another 15 acre land was denotified in favour of the same person, near Mysore to develop ITES Park.

c) In Bangalore 3.2 acres of land has been denotified to help the same person.

 

In return Prakash Shetty paid lots of money to BJP. There is a documentary evidence to show that a sum of Rs 75 lakhs was paid to Davalagiri Developers as 'service charges'. Davalagiri Enterprises is owned by two sons of chief minister Yeddyurappa, named Raghavendra and Vijayendra. Incidentally Raghavendra is also a member of Lok Sabha, from BJP.

 

2. A mining tycoon Praveen Chandra has been given 430 acres of land in Shimoga and Chitradurga. In turn there is an evidence to show that Rupees 3.5 crores were paid to Davalagiri Enterprises, owned by chief minister's sons.

 

3. South West Mining Company of Toranagal in Bellary district has transferred a sum of Rupees 10 crores to Raghavendra, 5 crores to Vijayendra(both sons) and 5 crores to Sohan Kumar(son -in-law of chief minister) in the month of August 2010.

 

After these transactions appeared in the news channel, all the bank accounts of CM’s family are being closed and the concerned bank managers are tightlipped to provide the informations.

 

4. For dentotifying the land belonging to B R Shetty, NRI based in Dubai, 2.20 acres of land worth Rs 20 crores was given to Besto Infrastructure Bangalore owned by chief minister’s sons and son-in-law.

 

5. Six sites each worth of more that one crore were given under chief minister’s quota, to his family members including son Raghavendra, Member of Loksabha.

 

6. Former energy minister and present state president of BJP K S Eshwarappa’s son K E Kanthesh got two acres of land from KIADB near Dabaspet, within 28 days of starting his company called Bharath Industries.

 

7. Katta Jagadish, BJP corporator and son of Katta Subramanya Naidu, an influential minister for housing, was arrested by the police on the charges of illegally receiving the compensation money from KIADB (Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board). Although KIADB acquired land from the farmers the compensation money was paid to Katta Jagadish on the plea that he had purchased the land.

 

8. Energy minister and close aide of chief minister Shobha Karandlaje floated a company called 'Kapila Manjushree Apparel'. Recently this company has purchased 166 acres of coffee plantation near Mercara.

8. Krishnaiah, minister in charge of Muzarai, fraudulently acquired the land belonging to Housing Board which had earlier been taken from farmers for a paltry sum. Later on this land was sold at an exorbitant rate.

This minister used to distribute 'Ganga Jal' and 'Tirupati Laddu' free of cost!

 

10. Ten acres of prime land in Bangalore, the present value is around 170 crores, has been denotified in favour of Dayananda Sagar, father of Hemachandra Sagar, BJP MLA.

 

11. Social Welfare minister Narayana Swamy's wife Vijaya Kumari purchased eight acres of land in Anekal taluk costing about 40 crores, at a discounted rate of Rs 2.40 crores

 

EARLILER

EPISODES

 In 2008, as there was shortage of six MLAs for the simple majority in the assembly, seven MLAs elected from Congress and JD(S) tickets were asked to resign and join BJP by offering ministerial berths as well as crores of rupees of money for the election expenses.

 

 Three ministers from Bellary popularly known as Reddy brothers or mining mafia were allowed to do illegal mining. At one time 23,000 crores of rupees worth of illegal iron ore was lying in the port and the officials confiscated the ore, at the advise of Lokayukta. But instead of appreciating the official concerned, he was suspended.

 

The above are only a tip of the iceberg. There are many more. BJP central leaders as well as RSS stalwarts are fully aware of the scam.

 

The state cabinet has decided to conduct a judicial enquiry. But our Party had demanded a CBI enquiry as judicial enquiry has no power to prosecute the culprits.

 

 We had given a call for protest demonstration on October 6 demanding the resignation of chief minister and Katta Subramanay Naidu (housing minister). The protest was observed in about 15 districts.

 

In the meantime, 16 MLAs, 11 belonging to BJP and 5 independents supporting BJP went to the governor and submitted a letter stating that they have no faith in the chief minister. The governor asked the government to prove its majority. However on the morning of assembly session, just before it started, the speaker illegally disqualified 16 MLAs and they were not allowed to vote. Apart from this, the speaker without counting the heads declared that the government won the vote of confidence.

 

In the state committee meeting of the Party in which K Varadarajan was present, held on November 4, 2010, it was decided to campaign against the BJP government for the following reasons:

 

1. They lost the majority. Out of the strength of 225 (including lone nominated member) BJP commands the strength of only 106.

 

2. Almost all the ministers are involved in the large scale scam (land, mining etc)

 

3. Out of the ill-gotten money, 'Operation Lotus' was launched to purchase MLAs.

 

In the above background, a state level convention with a slogan of 'Save Democracy - BJP government must quit.' was held on November 13, 2010 which was inaugurated by Sitaram Yechury. It was also decided to hold district level conventions followed by public awareness campaign throughout the state at taluka and hobli level.

 

As taluk panchayat and jilla panchayat elections are due in December, campaign would also include a call to defeat BJP in the forthcoming elections.