Bangalore: A clash between farmers and policemen over a power project. The alleged attack on policemen by an MLA. Errors in agriculture rights documents. The power crisis. Losing an industrial project to charming neighbour Seemandhra.
Just about everything under the sun and the moon came up for discussion in the Assembly on Monday and Tuesday. What was deafening though was the sound of silence on the issue of the cash-for-MLC scam. Not a word was spoken about this issue that arguably, would hit at the root of our democratic institutions. The entire Assembly probably fell into HD Kumaraswamy's neat script, because, as he said, "No one is a Harishchandra here. Everyone is living in a glass-house, not just me."
Whether he means to be crudely honest or meant it as a tease for the high-moral-ground lot of politicians, he's only giving home-truths. Kumaraswamy's candid statement came two days after an audio-CD was made public, where he is heard demanding Rs 40 crore from an MLC aspirant - his party, the JDS, has 40 MLAs in the Assembly, and the 'deal' would have given each a crore.
On his part, 'Kumaranna' has not denied that it was his voice (as a politician would normally do). He said these were "internal party discussions" about the kind of expenses that go into an election. That all his MLAs have spent money on getting elected to the Assembly last year (Assembly elections in Karnataka were held in April 2013) - that they were all in debt, that they were paying high interests. And this was part of "running the election".
Nothing is new in what he has admitted to, except that he has actually admitted to it. In the Karnataka Legislative Council (ironically enough called the House of the Elders), there are 75 members in all. Twenty-five of these are elected by MLAs - so depending on each party's strength in the Assembly, MLAs have a say in how many people they can send to the Council.
Similarly, some members to the Rajya Sabha are elected by MLAs from each state - and this again depends on the strength each party has.
Over the last 10 years, there have been many members both in the RS and the LC who have had one commonality, they've all been rich.
Be it corporate honchos like Vijay Mallya and Rajeev Chandrashekar, or the latest entrants Kupendra Reddy and TA Saravana. The last two - who won with the JDS' backing in June - have vast businesses in real estate and gold respectively.
Another aspirant who tried to get the JDS' support to get elected to the Council - Vijugowda Patil - was apparently asked to shell out Rs 40 crore, but is heard on tape trying to bargain it down to Rs 25 crore instead. HD Kumaraswamy did not agree. He didn't become an MLC.
While HD Kumaraswamy explains that this is just a negotiation over what it costs in an election, there is no actual exchange of money, what one is left imagining of course is how much it actually cost the MLC to become one. It is Patil who has leaked the CD with the controversial audio clipping now.
While you'd think that everyone in the ongoing Assembly session would be enraged and outraged enough that MLA votes were up for sale, and probably be rushing into the well to demand an explanation - for once, the Assembly is seeing no such thing. No one is even angry. You could try asking them why they don't raise the subject. Some shrug it off, some smile sheepishly. Some give you a gaze-diverted reluctance. And others wait for some others to raise the subject.
Ask Law Minister TB Jayachandra and he answers with a smile in his eyes. "Yes, he has admitted to doing something that has serious repercussions. We have to wait and see what action we can take," he says.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too shrugged it off with "I will examine it" when asked if there was provision in law for an enquiry. Their silence afterwards speaks volumes.
If it got talked about at all, it was by Kumaraswamy himself - again, daring the other parties to start a discussion. "I'm not scared of speaking the truth about issues of corruption to change the system, even if I have to go to jail for it," he told the Assembly on Wednesday. Not surprisingly, nobody took up the dare.
The BJP leaders pretended not to hear questions about the issue. For a simple reason - there is another person who became an MLC this June. DU Mallikarjun, an independent candidate, who became MLC with the support of the JDS and the BJP together. Not surprisingly, he is a realtor, declaring assets worth Rs 270 crore.
Is it possible that he got the BJP's support for free? "Nobody comes free," a wise MLA says. After all, Mallikarjuna is credited with having organised a JDS party legislators' "strategy and discussion" meeting in Sri Lanka a week after he got nominated.
The BJP in particular is also not raising this issue for another reason - it's worried that it would backfire on them. Kumaraswamy, while defending his statements in the CD three days back, asked reporters, "I'm not alone. All other parties do this. What was Operation Kamala?"
Three years back, when the BJP had a thin majority in the Assembly, it started Operation Kamala with the help of its then-powerful minister Janardhan Reddy - who is in jail now over illegal mining cases. Operation Kamala targeted pliant MLAs of other parties, got them to resign and join the BJP and get re-elected. On what consideration, is, again, left for you to imagine and guess.
The problem is, when they all live in a glass-house, there's not much left to the imagination.
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