It has been two years since Congress was voted to form the government in Karnataka. The electoral victory was hailed by many. It was expected to be a counter to the fascist BJP rule led by Bommai that it vowed to replace with social justice and democracy. At the end of 2 years it is thus important to examine whether the election promises made by the Congress have been fulfilled.
The five guarantee schemes were projected as the chief selling point in the Congress election campaigns. The schemes are Gruha Jyoti (200 units of free electricity for every household), Gruha Lakshmi (Rs. 2000 for every women head of the family), Anna Bhagya (10 kg of grains for each BPL family), Yuvanidhi (Rs. 3000 for unemployed graduates and Rs. 1500 for unemployed diploma holders for a period of 2 years), and Shakti scheme (free public bus travel for women). While such schemes are common welfare measures that may rejuvenate the economy in the short-term within the capitalist framework, it has a pacifying effect on people, diverting them from waging struggles against a deteriorating standard of living. In other words, rather than generating jobs and employment opportunities for people, the government is leaning towards making people reliant on charities. Moreover, there has been diversion of funds from the SC/ST welfare corpus towards these schemes. This move was protested across the state. While the schemes have been widely accepted, the sustainability of it remains under question. A few other important promises have been highlighted below.
1. Expectation: All approved government vacancies were promised to be filled up within one year.
Reality: In the higher education department 53% posts are vacant. The numbers are 62%, 58%, and 47% respectively for the urban development, labour, and health and medical education departments.
2..Expectation: All teacher and staff vacancies in government and aided schools and colleges were promised to be filled up within one year.
Reality: 59,772 teaching posts remain vacant in government schools across Karnataka. 6,158 schools are currently managed by a single teacher. 412 out of 440 government colleges are running without principals. A total of 2,800 teaching posts are vacant in government colleges.
3..Expectation: All staff/doctors post vacancies to be filled up in all government hospitals.
Reality: 1940 posts for doctors remain vacant across Karnataka, particularly in the rural areas. This includes specialists, medical professionals, and general duty medical officers.
4..Expectation: Commitment to take firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hate amongst communities on grounds of caste or religion.
Reality: The Hijab ban brought by BJP in 2022 is yet to be lifted. RSS-backed Bajrang Dal has been fomenting trouble as usual in the name of ‘Love jihad’, ‘Gauraksha’, etc. Last year in Channagiri, a Muslim youth was killed in police custody. In summary, the government has done very little to stick to their stated constitutional ideals of secularism.
5..Expectation: Mining mafia and loot of natural resources were promised to be stopped.
Reality: Land grab and displacement of locals continue to be one of the major concerns among people. Be it Devanahalli in the outskirts of Bangalore, Nagarhole forests, or Honnavar in coastal Karnataka, local people are facing eviction and a complete loss of livelihood. Interestingly, before the assembly polls, the current Deputy CM DK Shivakumar had appealed to the people of Honnavar not to cede even an inch of land to the private port construction company. As of now, the Karnataka police is acting as goons of the same private company.
6..Expectation: Regularisation of 25,000 pourakarmikas (municipal workers) along with all relevant facilities.
Reality: After the historic strike of pourakarmikas in July, 2022, BJP falsely promised to regularise them. Despite Congress assuring the same, the workers are yet to be regularised. Recently, the CM has declared May 1st to be the day of implementation.
Apart from these, the Congress government has been rocked by Devanahalli farmers fighting against land acquisition, trade unions demanding revocation of the Factories (Karnataka Amendment) Act, protests demanding the repeal of the ban on protests outside Freedom park, movements by ASHA workers, mid-day meal workers, health sector workers, guest lecturers, government job aspirants, and many other sectoral protests. In Bangalore particularly, police have been cracking down on campaigns, study circles, and even poetry readings in public places. FIRs have been lodged against activists for protesting on the steps of Town hall despite the CM promising to work towards providing the steps of Town Hall for protests in the city. Extreme police high-handedness has been observed in case of protests/campaigns/screenings/discussions on Palestine. Last year, an FIR was slapped on Muslim youths merely for carrying a Palestine flag. Multiple students and youth faced FIRs and police brutality in Bangalore for merely joining a campaign on Palestine.
Lastly, the cost of living has skyrocketed in Bangalore. Be it hikes in bus and metro fares, hike in costs of dairy products, widening gap between inflation and minimum wages, unregulated private health and education markets, etc.- The people are left vying for breath. The Congress has been 100% successful in showing that they are as competent as the BJP in terms of saving both the economy and democracy.
