‘Honesty is the fastest way to prevent a mistake from turning into a failure.’
This is what anyone would expect from CM Siddaramaiah at this hour of crisis. His reaction to BJP’s charge sheet on his corrupt deeds was rather crudely offensive with a ‘defamation notice’ having been sent to Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah rather ‘ignoring’ the reality in a tactical manner. As Napoleon famously said ‘Do not interrupt your enemy when he is committing a mistake’, BJP appears to be following this sermon in a way interrupting Siddaramaiah more, only to make him commit more and more mistakes.
BJP has neatly sketched the corruption charge-sheet with indisputable evidence against Siddaramaiah. Hence, Siddaramaiah’s Rs 100 crores defamation legal notice is unlikely to impact the public opinion and may only add further woes to his ongoing misery. This notice may serve only as a face-saver for the CM.
However, besides these allegations of his association with Ponzi scheme scam mastermind Vijay Easwaran, Siddaramaiah’s continuous pursuit to court the ‘rich and famous’ for meeting his financial emergencies are anything but an open secret.
In March 2018, Siddaramaiah inducted the Independent MLA from Bidar, Mr Ashok Kheny, into the Congress Party. Ashok Kheny by then, was only known for his ill-gotten wealth and black money. Kheny is the boss of ‘Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) which has built the outer ring road in Bengaluru, it is known as NICE ring road.
There were serious charges of corruption, forgery and murder against Mr Ashok Kheny.
Like the Congress General Secretary Mr Rahul Gandhi involved in dual citizenship controversy, Mr Ashok Kheny too is not an Indian Citizen in the first place. On the direction of a local court in Bidar, the local police had an FIR registered against Mr Ashok Kheny and 3 others for forgery. The Bengaluru based activist Mr T.J. Abraham who contested against Mr Kheny in 2013 and lost, had filed a petition against Mr Kheny in Bidar alleging that Mr Kheny had lied about his nationality and created the false certificate. The petitioner alleged that Kheny is an American Citizen and not Indian as claimed. He further claimed that Mr Ashok Kheny was not in India when the application for enrolment was filed in Bidar. Mr Ashok Kheny’s signature was forged by his brother Mr Sanjay Kheny with the connivance of the local body officials like one Booth Level Officer, and an Assistant Returning Officer of Bidar. Despite all these attempts, Kheny’s nomination papers were accepted by the EC in April 2018 on the basis of MOEA’s clearance on his Indian citizenship.
Murder Charge against Ashok Kheny
In 2011, the Police questioned Ashok Kheny and his henchman Rudresh in connection with the murder of farmer leader Mr Siddalinga Prabhu, who spearheaded an agitation of farmers against NICE Company and its construction activity of NICE Ring Road. The deceased’s wife attempted suicide as there was no progress in the investigation of her husband’s murder. Mr Deve Gowda’s fierce agitation against Kheny in 2011 in protest against this murder had its damaging effect on JD (S) and Congress tie-up, as Mr Kheny was the prime suspect in the murder.
Furthermore, the people in Bidar from where Mr Kheny won the 2013 elections were fiercely angry with Kheny and anti-incumbency ire is riding high among the people of Bidar. It is evident from a recent viral video, in which the people were seen venting their anger against Kheny. Initially, Siddaramaiah’s idea behind the induction of Kheny into Congress party was to win the Lingayat votes as Mr Ahok Kheny is a Lingayat. So, for this reason, the rivalry became a caste-war between Deve Gowda and Kheny as Vokkaliga-Lingayat war. Yet, the induction of Mr Kheny into Congress had faced severe resistance from within the Congress party as well. Finally, the intended purpose of the CM to garner Lingayat votes with the mask of Kheny too has miserably failed. In fact, although Mr Kheny is a Lingayat, but he and his family are practising Christians. This fact may also not go well with the voters, not for the reason their faith is Christianity, but for the fact that Siddaramaiah is using caste to play with the sentiments of the people of Karnataka.
Not to forget Mr Ashok Kheny’s involvement in the horse-trading allegation in Rajya Sabha elections, where Mr Kheny was alleged to have spent crores of rupees. During this ugly episode, Ashok Kheny’s bad manners too were exposed when he abused a lady journalist of Times Now channel from the team of Mr Arnab Goswamy. It was a viral video then, as Arnab took on Kheny to floor him badly.
On Tape: Watch how stung Karnataka MLA Ashok Kheny abuses @TimesNow reporter #DemocracyForSale #SeatsForSalehttps://t.co/NKVSvHM6ys
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) June 6, 2016
In the meantime, BJP CM candidate Mr Yeddyurappa has alleged a ‘mega coal scam’ of Siddaramaiah’s Power Minister Mr DK Shivakumar being involved. It was Mr DK Shivakumar who recommended Mr Kheny’s induction in the party.
In February this year, Mr Kheny had demonstrated his cash power in Bidar. His followers threw cash in open air for the people to collect it, during an SC/ST meet. This video too went viral on SM. This is nothing but a brazen and audacious display of wealth and ego.
With this bad weight on him, Siddaramaiah’s image has taken a beating and people of Karnataka are certain to reject him, particularly in the backdrop of surging international reputation of PM Sri Narendra Modi. As this ‘courting with corrupt’ attitude only shows Congress Party’s audacious tendency and the false over-confident of the party that people will vote for Congress not minding its corrupt image, but for its ‘secular’ credentials.
