Karnataka’s politics is something that you can only speak of in the past tense.

This was the land of the first representative assembly.

This was where the earliest social reforms and reservations began.

This was where power was taken to the people through panchayati raj.

Etcetera.

As the coalition government of the Congress and Janata Dal Secular teeters on the brink, thanks to the shenanigans of their MLAs, the renowned scholar Janaki Nair of the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, offers a first-class lament in today’s Indian Express.

“Forget agriculture, neither the IT/BT or the garment industries, for which Bengaluru may be better known, nor even the once lucrative education sectors are sending their representatives to the legislative bodies.

“The wealth of those legislators on the “run” is drawn from two important areas — strip mining and real estate. Neither of these are guaranteed to swell government coffers, offer jobs or bring well-being to the people of Karnataka. 

“Politicians yearn to lay hands on the state’s public goods and natural assets, as well as control of its once independent bureaucracy. The result is often the disaster that the current resort/hotel politics completely eclipsed.”

Read the full article: Janaki Nair