With a 90-minute press conference bringing to nought the tens of crores being squandered in advertising the “sadhane” (achievements) of the two-year-old B.S. Yediyurappa government, the paid pipers of the BJP are back at what they do best: shooting the messenger, attributing motives, and slapping their thighs without a hint of remorse.
Without bothering to be bothered about the core issue: the brazen sleaze and corruption—cutting across gender, party, ideology, age, religion—that tests the trust and faith of the common man in the democratic system, and in the seriousness of those he has elected to at least put up a pretence of putting an end to it.
But the motives and motivations of Justice Nitte Santosh Hegde, who has cast the first stone, is not to be sniffed at; his pedigree not to be piffled with. Justice Hegde draws inspiration from Justice Hegde, his father Justice Kowdoor Sadananda Hegde. One took on the Congress, the other took on the BJP.
***
From Business Standard:
“Justice N. Santosh Hegde, till this week the Lok Ayukta of Karnataka, a former Supreme Court judge and the son of the famous late Justice K.S. Hegde—who resigned from the Supreme Court of India in protest against his supersession by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, contributing to events that culminated in her imposition of national Emergency—has spoken for millions of concerned citizens across the country by quitting his post….
“Hegde’s resignation does not herald his entry into politics. He scoffs at such suggestions. His wife Sharada (who is a Punjabi grown up in Karnataka) and he have no children. He lives simply, has a flat in Bangalore and an ancestral home in Mangalore. He often talks about his mother Meenakshi, who greatly influenced his life. She was responsible for imbuing her children with values of humaneness.
“His father K.S. Hegde, who was also Speaker of Lok Sabha between 1977 and 1980, had made it clear to his children that while they would get the best education possible, making something of themselves was up to them — they would get no help from their father.
“But what Hegde has in common with his father is a sense of justice and an abiding commitment to principle. The senior Justice Hegde had resigned from the Supreme Court, the junior one, too, quit the government because he was not allowed to work.”
Read the full stories: here and here
Links via Gouri Satya
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
***
Also read: CHURUMURI POLL: India’s most corrupt State?
Why has corruption become such a small issue?
GOOD NEWS: Karnataka beats AP, TN, Kerala
How China changed the politics of Karnataka
CHURUMURI POLL: Karnataka, Bihar of the South?
Tags: B, B.S.Yediyurappa, BJP, Churumuri, Indira Gandhi, Justice K.S. Hegde, Justice N. Santosh Hegde, Lok Ayukta, Reddy Brothers, Sans Serif, Yedi
25 June 2010 at 5:51 pm
Sadly, politicians know very well the corruption isn’t an issue. Because, The alternatives on offer are also equally corrupt.
The folks who gets really hurt in all this is ofcourse the lowest rung – some of whom loose faith in the system and turn to violent measures. Wonder if we’ll pull thru as a democratic nation.
25 June 2010 at 7:01 pm
Corruption isnt a issue since most of us Indians are corrupt by nature. The word corruption or brashtachaara itself does not mean much when applied in an Indian context. It does not sit well with the nepotism we display (and strongly justify) with respect to our religion, caste, family, language etc.
Concepts developed by Westerners like democracy, social justice based on books/contracts etc. dont mean so much to us in practical terms.
Santhosh Hegde is wasting his time and should move on to something else.
25 June 2010 at 8:14 pm
The problem with your argument is when former CEC Gopalaswamy raised an issue about his junior Navin Chawla, you perfumed ass left liberal journalists never went into the details of his complaint but brought up dubious conspiracy theories regarding the timing and motive of his complaint so you guys have completely lost the credibility to question the Karnataka government when it attributes motives to this man’s decision to quit.
25 June 2010 at 9:18 pm
losing justice hegde’s service (and respect) is the government’s great shame.
25 June 2010 at 9:49 pm
While it is easy to put blame on the corrupt politicians, how many of us took interest in supporting Justice Hegde? Let us also do some introspection. Only when it became unbearable and we could not afford to pay the bribe, we sought the help of Lok Ayukta.
Let us also ask how media has helped the cause for which Justice Hegde was fighting. No doubt they did publicize his raids. But it was only for its sensational value. Did they dig into those stories? Did they repeatedly ask questions at each and every conference about the alleged corrupt practices of the ministers?
25 June 2010 at 11:01 pm
Santosh Hegde set an example for BJP ruled Karnataka that has kick started a protest movement and the whole country knows about the mega scams in the centre and who has to set an example so that there is a mass protest movement across the country against corruption?
25 June 2010 at 11:30 pm
I fully support Bhamy’s views.Still I cannot accept the fact that Hegde quit so easily after carrying on for a while. Also Hegde was getting selective with his working – targeting only a sliver of the political spectrum he didn’t approve of…that attitude IMHO raises all manner of questions about his real intentions.
25 June 2010 at 11:45 pm
Mass protest movement exists. Is called naxalism, maoism etc. The middle classes would rather live with corruption than go that route.
25 June 2010 at 11:47 pm
@Srikumar:
….completely lost the credibility to question the Karnataka government when it attributes motives to this man’s decision to quit.
What are the imputed motives as projected by Karnataka Govt. for Mr. Hegde’s move? Pl. elaborate. I am quite curious to know.
25 June 2010 at 11:56 pm
Highly Corrupt politicians, very highly corrupt Bureaucrats- (hand in glove with political mafia), delay in Justice delivery by our courts ( from the lowest to the Apex court ), the Media – print & electronic compromised – that means all the four limbs of the Nation in a QUESTIONABLE stance in India- Is our dear INDIA/Bharat is heading to oblivion ?
26 June 2010 at 9:39 am
Srikumar:
>you perfumed ass left liberal journalists never went into the details of his complaint but brought up dubious conspiracy theories
If I remember right, Naveen Chawla’s case was highlighted by all media. There was huge hue and cry about Mr. Chawla. Only a few papers questioned Gopalaswamy’s motives.
Besides, Questioning the motive of a man isn’t the same as saying he is wrong. Most probably Karnataka Govt. is right in saying Mr. Hegde is motivated. Motivation is important for any action, especially strong action!! ;-)
The question is if it is a bad motive, to wish to make public the black deeds of a govt.??
26 June 2010 at 2:42 pm
Yeddy is just carrying forward the legacy of Indira Gandhi,then it was Hegde
senior now its the turn of Hegde junior.SNH is not the only person at the recieving end but also persons like Mr.Nayak of NHRC and C.S.Dwarakanath
of BC.The message is crystal clear ‘fall in line or else’.
27 June 2010 at 2:16 am
I happened to be in Blr during the “Sadhana Samaavesha”, a obscenely publicized event (Tamil Nadu style with giant cutouts of so called-BJP leaders who once belonged to the kaki-clad zero nonsense-RSS cadre, transporting entire villages to Blr by iron-ore Reddy mafia, 5-star catering for food..etc) . Well, I did manage to reach the new airport shed after 3 hrs delay, stuck in the jam of poor villagers returning to their towns…all pre-paid trips.
While in the jam, I noticed the self-confessed “farmer” a.k.a. CM crying on the screens positioned all round the Palace Gardens for the public to watch the spectacle, orchestrated by the illegal iron-ore Reddy family and BJP mafia.
Santosh Hegde is most likely a Cong-I MP in future, however, the best he will end up is, ensuring his family and pedigree are well taken care off. …it is all Politics….BJP or Cong-I…all same coin saar ;-)
One or two major questions:
With the nation and Cong-I leadership watching helplessly despite the build-up of corruption cases (for major crime litigation in near future) is the BJP on its final lap?
Key members of the state Govt/cabinet are among the biggest, super-corrupt overnight billionaires in Blr. Are the CBI and Central Govt so incompetent to churn and burn the obvious?
Finally, why is Rahul, so silent? His MPs from Karnataka & Andhra are obviously in-competent, super corrupt in practice as well as zero in public opinion and instant trash. Does it indicate the trend among the new-gen in Cong-I?
3 July 2010 at 10:42 pm
Interesting. He is withdrawing his resignation!!
Wonder why Advani didn’t intervene before?? waiting for all the tamasha to get over?
3 November 2010 at 1:47 pm
Respected sir/s,
We have heard a lot about you through media that you have caught so many criminals red handed. Although I do not know what the end result of those criminals is, I am sure your work has to a certain extent reduced the criminal activities of many big shots, but I don’t think that it has helped the common much. We doesn’t mean to discredit you from the excellent job you have done, but it is just a request and also an advise to consider us too.
You know very well that many of our politicians are criminals too. Our advise is that
you concentrate more on the upcoming crimal politicians. To cover up our our points, we are giving a few details of what is in our mind.
Take the case of M.Ishtiaq Ahmed, a resident of noah street, shivajinagar,Bangalore-51 A BJP worker from a few years has a record of all types of crimes. He was a dacoit, he was running a sex racket, an extortionist and a notorious rowdy to sum it up all. He is an accused in many cases and he has a few cases still pending against him.
He has never worked in his life for a single day nor was his father a millioner, still
from the past ten to fifteen years he lives like a king and has even kept many body guards
for his safety. He also spends thousnads of rupees daily on hoardings, gives alms to beggars and a few of the needy. He also owns eight (8) to ten (10) buildings in that area alone.
How and from where? It is for you to find out.We have given you the clue.
His brothers are criminals too. For instance, his elder brother was the main accused
in the murder of one AZAM many years back. They joined hands and put the blame on their younger to close the matter and absconded to the gulf (like ROSHAN BAIG and REHAN BAIG of stamp paper scam and KATTA SUBRAMANI’S sons and their relatives of land scam.
NOw by hook or by crook he has made his a member of legislative council (FARIDA), who was a house wife and know nothing about politics and in her guise he has become more powrful
This is to just show you that if we can stop these type of upcoming criminals from
becoming criminals can we save our city, our state and our country tarnishing India’s image by these criminal politicians and hence save our countrymen from unnecessary difficulties that they are facing and with nobody to help them. This will go a long way in helping the common man.
Thanking you and hoping that you would consider this letter as telegram and start your action at the earliest.
Note: I request Mr. SANTOSH HEGDE to take this case in his hand immediately.