41st anniversary of The Times of India, Bengaluru: Many twists and turns from Bangalore to Bengaluru

Time of India

12 hours ago

S Suresh Kumar
In The Past 4 Decades, Bengaluru's Political Climate Has Changed. Today, The City Is A Bundle Of Challenges Imperilled By A Lack Of Political Vision And Conviction To Make It Among The Global Best
1984.
The year meant many things to many people. But change was the only constant. It brought in tough-to-conceal literary changes across the world, in Indian politics and also in Bangalore's mediascape. The year in discussion was also the title of George Orwell's dystopian novel published at least 35 years ago.
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Incidentally, I first read the novel on totalitarianism in Bangalore Central Jail where I was imprisoned for 15 months during Emergency.
S Venkataram, a socialist leader, had referred the book to me.
That was also the year The Times of India started its Bangalore edition. Before that, I used to rely on the Sunday edition of TOI Mumbai; mirthful cartoons of RK Laxman are still green in my memory. That was also the year India lost its Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in a ghastly act of Sikh militancy.
A year before, Karnataka welcomed its first non-Congress govt led by Ramakrishna Hegde. In the first assembly elections since
BJP
was formed in 1980, the party won 18 seats, giving all of us big hope.
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Our leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced support to the nonCongress regime. Hegde's government came up with workable blueprints for introducing panchayat raj institutions taking democracy to the grassroots.
Hegde's ministerial colleague, Abdul Nazir Saab, left a deep imprint as rural development & panchayat raj minister by digging tubewells to provide drinking water in villages. People still fondly remember him as 'Neer Saab'.
After 1970, successive state governments didn't hold elections to then Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) for unstated reasons. One of Hegde's earliest decisions was to hold elections to urban local bodies. Within months of Hegde as CM, the BCC elections were held in August 1983.
The BJP decided to field me from then Sriramapura ward, part of Rajajinagar assembly constituency. I was reluctant to enter the electoral politics as I had just started my career as an advocate under famous senior advocate SV Raghavachar. I acceded to BJP's request and won in my first attempt itself. My total campaign expenditure was Rs 2,400 – yes, you read it right!
In the 85-member BCC, the BJP had four members -- Ramachandra Gowda, MC Ashwath Narayan, Srinivas Murthy and I.
We were the first public representatives from BJP as the party did not have any MP, MLA or MLC yet. I still remember the names of mayors of that period: K Sunder Raj, BKM Gowda, ML Subbaraju, Dr Seshadri and Lawrence Fernandes (younger brother of George Fernandes). BCC was a hive of activities, its meetings were serious and carried a sense of purpose.
Members from DMK, AIADMK and CPI were equally active. Corporators' popular modes of transport were bicycles and buses.
Bangalore – as it was called then – had its quota of political stalwarts: Prof A Lakshmi Sagar, VS Krishna Iyer, M Chandrasekhar, and Jeevaraj Alva. CM Hegde represented Basavanagudi in the assembly. They thought of the future of Bangalore with the seriousness it deserved. Jayadeva Hospital was conceived and founded around this time. Unlike today, the relationship between corporators and MLAs was cordial regardless of political affiliation.
During my first term as corporator between 1983 and 1988, my MLA was MS Krishnan, a powerful trade union leader from CPI.
Respect was mutual. Though I was just 27 then, he used to treat me with love and affection. When he passed away in September 2000, I visited CPI's office Ghate Bhavan to pay my respects and participate in the funeral procession.
In a slum area coming under my constituency (now part of RR Nagar), I had succeeded in getting possession certificates to its dwellers.
The residents were so happy they wanted to name the area after me. But I refused and had it named it after MS Krishnan, who had sincerely worked to improve the place.
In 1989, Janata Party lost to the
Congress
led by late Veerendra Patil after a series of scandals such as phonetapping, Revajeetu, and arrack bottling hit the government. In the 1985 Lok Sabha polls, Congress scored a big win on the back of a sympathy wave following the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
In Karnataka, Congress won all but Bangalore South. Hegde, CM at that time, saw it as a vote against his government, dissolved the assembly and sought a fresh mandate.
People returned Janata Party with a huge mandate. BJP tally slipped from 18 to two. In the 1989 polls, BJP's strength inched up to four. In the 1990 BCC elections, BJP upped its tally to eight. I became BJP bloc leader in BCC.
The 1989-1994 period saw Congress replace two chief ministers.
Rajiv Gandhi unceremoniously sacked Veerendra Patil through a media announcement at the Bangalore airport. Later, Patil's successor S Bangarappa stepped down to make way for M Veerappa Moily. This was also the period the Congress saw bitter internal fights and groupism. In the 1994 election, the Hegde-Gowda-led Janata Dal emerged victorious. With 40 seats, BJP was the principal opposition party and BS Yediyurappa led the bloc.
KR Ramesh Kumar was my first speaker in the assembly. He encouraged young MLAs like me with opportunities to speak. Two years later, HD Deve Gowda went to Delhi as a proud PM from Karnataka, and JH Patel succeeded him as CM. Those days, the relationship between treasury benches and the opposition party was healthy.
The infighting in the Dal government helped Congress come back led by SM Krishna, a suave and cultured politician. He had a clear vision for Bangalore. He faced tough times with the abduction of superstar Dr Rajkumar and drought, Cauvery tangles with
Tamil Nadu
and a contempt case in the Supreme Court.
In 2004, Dharam Singh led the first JD(S)-Congress coalition regime, but that did not last long. In 2006, in a political coup, JD(S)-BJP formed a coalition government with HD Kumaraswamy as CM and BS Yediyurappa CM. The regime collapsed after 20 months. The brief era saw Siddaramaiah join Congress.
In the 2008 midterm election, BJP emerged as the largest single party with110 seats. Yediyurappa formed the government relying on support from the independents.
He became the first CM to introduce a separate budget for farmers. In the months that followed, DV Sadananda Gowda succeeded Yediyurappa, who was replaced by Jagadish Shettar.
In 2013, Siddaramaiah led the Congress to victory. Five years later, JDS became the head of a coalition with Congress support. In 2019, Yediyurappa again became the CM and was succeeded by Basavaraj Bommai. In 2023, Siddaramaiah became CM for a second time and has earned the reputation of presenting the budget for a record number of times.
In the past four decades, Bangalore has become Bengaluru, BCC turned Greater Bengaluru. The city no longer gets water from TG Halli, which once met a third of Bengaluru's needs. Instead, Cauvery is the source now. Today, our Bengaluru is a bundle of challenges imperilled by a lack of political vision and conviction to make it among the global best.
The writer is a former education and law & parliamentary affairs minister of Karnataka