In Karnataka, Everybody Loves a Good Scam

Politicians and activists are pulling out decades-old land deals and titling them as a scam to settle scores.

With the Karnataka High Court verdict on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah challenging Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot's sanction to prosecute him in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) sites allotment case expected any time, there appears to be a temporary ceasefire between the ruling Congress party and the BJP-JD(S) opposition alliance.

In the last two months, Gehlot has had his hands full. He has been receiving petitions from the Congress party, opposition parties and even activists, who have upped the ante by pulling out decades-old land transactions or deals of their leaders and then titling them as a scam to settle scores.

While three activists petitioned the Governor and got the sanction to prosecute Siddaramaiah in MUDA allotting 14 alternative sites to his wife, the BJP claimed that All India Congress Committee (AICC) President Mallikarjun M Kharge's family unfairly received land from the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) for their Siddhartha Vihar Trust in Kalaburagi.

The Congress party retaliated by charging the BJP's opposition leader in the Legislative Council Chalavadi K Narayanaswamy with misusing a civic amenity site allotted to run an educational institution by turning it into a biryani joint in Hoskote, Bangalore Rural district and a two-acre land given by the KIADB for an industrial unit in Mysuru where only a shed was put up.