Karnataka CM Gundu Rao sacks minister Renuka Rajendran, Harijan legislators incensed

By dispensing with the services of his Harijan Cabinet colleague, Mrs Renuka Rajendran, minister for sericulture and small-scale industries, against whom the Corps of Detectives (COD) has filed a chargesheet for alleged fraud, Karnataka Chief Minister R. Gundu Rao has slipped from a mere Cabinet crisis into a crisis of confidence.The traditional anti-Gundu Rao lobby within the Congress(I), led by S. Bangarappa, sacked as minister for revenue and agriculture, is elated. The small but tightly organised clutch of 30-odd Harijan legislators is incensed.This lobby, which has suddenly begun to spread its wings, is convinced that Mrs Rajendran has been singled out as a "political scapegoat" by Gundu Rao to safeguard his ministry's position and stature. Members of this lobby argue that the chief minister chose an easy way out of his source of embarrassment by promptly sacking the Harijan minister, while far graver charges of misconduct against some of his other Cabinet colleagues continue to be ignored.Rao with Mrs Rajendran: Growing dissentC.M. Ibrahim, minister for planning and Wakf, Y. Ramakrishna, minister for parliamentary affairs, H.C. Srikantaiah, minister for cooperatives, and K. Yenkatappa, minister of state for horiticulture, have all been under a cloud, with inquiries going on against their alleged misdeeds. Nevertheless, Gundu Rao chose to drop Mrs Rajendran, thereby trying to curb the Harijan lobby. Given the sudden bout of activity within Harijan ranks, other anti-Gundu Rao lobbies feel emboldened to step up pressures on him. Indeed, after the exit of Bangarappa, the flak against the chief minister has increased considerably. With the axe having fallen on a Harijan minister, opportunist alliances have begun to take place. Mrs Rajendran's exit has brought the simmering crisis within the Cabinet into the open. Big Insult: The Harijans in Karnataka, who have chafed for over three decades for not having thrown up a single chief minister notwithstanding their large demographic strength, have interpreted Mrs Rajendran's dismissal as a big insult. When the chargesheet was filed in the chief metropolitan magistrate's court in Bangalore on May 18, the minister was holidaying in Kashmir. Ten of her party MLAs had sent telegrams to Mrs Indira Gandhi asking for her immediate dismissal. Mrs Rajendran rushed back to Bangalore to tender her letter of resignation.The case against her is four years old. In 1977, Suresh, an unemployed youth from Shimoga, sought her help to get himself the post of a sub-inspector of police. Then a mere MLA, Mrs Rajendran allegedly demanded Rs 25,000 which Suresh willingly paid. When the list of selected candidates was published, his name was not there. He demanded his money back. Mrs Rajendran's husband, K. Rajendran, state joint director of information, reportedly paid back Rs 4,000 in cash and the balance in cheques.Suresh approached A.K. Subbaiah, then leader of the opposition Janata Party in the Legislative Council, when the cheques bounced and the Rajendrans failed to make good his loss, Subbaiah kicked up a row and extracted a promise from the then chief minister, Devaraj Urs, that he would inquire into the matter. The inquiry, however, was ordered only after Urs and Mrs Rajendran parted company when Urs left Mrs Gandhi's camp in 1979.When the Urs Government fell, Mrs Rajendran found a berth in the Gundu Rao Ministry. The progress of the investigation slowed down considerably, at least that was the impression the police gave. The cod sprang a surprise by filing the chargesheet against Mrs Rajendran on May 18 after gathering foolproof evidence against her, including verification of signatures by the government examiner of questioned documents, Hyderabad. This is the first instance of the police charge-sheeting a minister in a criminal case under the Gundu Rao regime.Bigger Sharks: What has upset the Harijan and other backward community lobbies is the spotlight turned on Mrs Rajendran for her alleged misdemeanour involving a measly sum of Rs 25,000 even as the bigger sharks are allowed to operate freely in Karnataka. While her fellow Harijans realise that Mrs Rajendran is a non-entity in realistic political terms, their eyes are turned on Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare B. Shankaranand, also a Harijan hailing from Karnataka, as a rallying point.Elected to the Lok Sabha from the reserved constituency of Belgaum, Shankaranand is soft-spoken, mild-mannered, self-effacing, diligent and a fiercely loyal political aide of Mrs Gandhi. Uninvolved all along in any of the inner factional feuds either in his home state or at the Centre, Shankaranand has displayed good working relations with Gundu Rao. Always maintaining a low profile, he has proved his mettle as a conscientious parliamentarian. He played a significant role in the work of the Privileges Committee of the Sixth Lok Sabha, appointed by the Janata Government, which investigated charges of breach of privilege by Mrs Gandhi. In his detailed note of dissent, Shankaranand refuted the charges against Mrs Gandhi and against the committee's majority decision which led to her expulsion from Parliament in the winter of 1978.Unlike many other Harijan leaders in Karnataka, Shankaranand faces no problem of credibility. Nor is he under any type of flak, either overt or covert, within or without the Congress (I). With his humble caste origins, and proximity to Mrs Gandhi, Shankaranand is considered by many of his party colleagues as the "ideal candidate" for the Karnataka gaddi. Gundu Rao is under considerable heat from the frustrated and furious Harijan lobby. Other anti-Gundu Rao elements are trying to stoke the fires. Unless he makes some major concessions to the Harijans, Gundu Rao is in for trouble.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 21, 2013 10:55 IST--- ENDS ---

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Karnataka CM Gundu Rao sacks minister Renuka Rajendran, Harijan legislators incensed

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