THE GREAT PSYCOPHANT DHANANJAY KUMAR- IN DEFENSE OF YEDURAPPA

 Firoz.T.Totanawala

The Bangalore Metro Reporter

1st August 2011 issue-

                       THE GREAT PSYCOPHANT

      DHANANJAY KUMAR- IN DEFENSE OF YEDURAPPA

Dhananjay Kumar, a familiar face of BJP in the TV chat shows and also the State Representative in New Delhi with a cabinet rank, is an interesting figure to know. He was a Minister of State for Finance in Vajpayee Government at the centre but later lost his power.

After Yeddyurappa became the Chief Minister, Dhananjaya Kumar jumped into his bandwagon and became his Chief Sycophant in his efforts at political rehabilitation. Whatever is said or done by Yedurappa, whether right or wrong, Dhananjay Kumar dons the role of the defender of such actions. For him Yedurappa is his mentor, protector and Godfather. One can imagine his ‘defense’ of Yedurappa by the fact that Dhananjay had solemnly made a statement that there was no ‘dissent’ in the party or the Yedurappa Government at a time, when the Reddy Brothers along with MLAs were openly calling Yedurappa names and publicly demanding his ouster!

Of course, Yedurappa had to keep his sycophant in good humour and therefore made him the State Representative in New Delhi with a Cabinet rank. This post is very crucial to the State as the State representative has to make all efforts with the Central Government and various Ministers to clear the pending projects of the State and also to get as many new projects as possible.

But Dhananjay never bothered about the post. He made Bangalore his headquarters instead of New Delhi and continued to defend scam tainted Yedurappa. He never showed any remorse or shame while defending him and counter attacked the H D Deve Gowda family and some Congress leaders who exposed Yedurappa’s scams. People watching live chat shows got fed up with his shameless defense of the indefensible. In fact, his brow beating tactics, never allowing others to answer, let alone talk, antagonised not only the viewers but a majority of BJP leaders. As he was designated by Yedurappa to represent BJP and him, the channels could not avoid him.

While Dhananjay was expecting Rajya Sabha nomination by Yedurappa for all the ‘great’ services rendered by him, he was ditched by the BJP High Command by nominating Hema Malini to the vacancy. Stories were also planted that Dhananjay would be made a Minister by Yedurappa, but, various factors compelled him to drop this idea. Notwithstanding the setbacks, Dhananjay continued his ‘defense’ of Yedurappa and his family, hoping against hope that he will be suitably rewarded.

As he was busy ‘defending’ Yedurappa, he could not concentrate at New Delhi looking and his duties as the State Representative. His very rare New Delhi ‘visits’ are limited to accompanying Yedurappa whenever he went to New Delhi, either on Government or party duties. Consequently, Dhananjay could not manage to clear any of the pending proposals at the Central Government level, not to speak of getting any new projects.

Of course, he is an expert ‘deal’ master. He can ‘fix’ anybody and is prepared to meet anybody at anytime provided it suits the designs of Yedurappa. He went to all possible extent for Yedurappa and that earned him a fortune.

Now Dhananjay is involved in another big trouble with regard to his attempts at influencing the Lokayukta Santosh Hegde to spare Yedurappa in the Mining scam. As the D day was nearing for the Lokayukta to submit his final report on Mining scam, Yedurappa was in jitters along with some of his Ministers, because the report was expected to contain their names and misdeeds.

Yedurappa’s name in the report was a certainty and everybody knew that he had allowed the mining lobby to remote control the Government. Earlier the Lokayukta had announced the submission of the report by March end and Yedurappa, as usual, wanted to come clean despite being the main player in the scam. He wanted to get a character certificate in the report by mentioning the levy of special toll tax on iron ore Lorries and later banning the mining itself. But, surely that does not absolve him of his involvement.

Dhananjay wanted to free Yedurappa from the Lokayukta; clutches. He along with Minister V.S.Acharya, who is an old friend of Lokayukta, and another BJP leader, met Santosh Hegde and during the course of ‘talks’ tried to influence him to skip Yedurappa’s name in the report. It is said that Lokayukta snubbed Dhananjay Kumar and others. Not everything can be managed through the sheer power of money; few people are simply ‘not’ purchasable.

But, even after the snub, Dhananjay Kumar did not learn the lessons. When Santosh Hegde was in Delhi to receive an award, Dhananjay took Yedurappa to Santosh Hegde to felicitate him on winning the award! This was his ploy to paint that Yedurappa and Santosh Hegde have come to a truce.

After ‘managing’ the incident, Dhananjay started blowing his own couch that he saved the day for Yedurappa by clinching a deal with the Lokayukta. However, the Lokayukta ‘revealed’ the dirty tricks of Dhananjay Kumar. Dhananjay who was always itching to talk in favour of Yedurappa, has now kept his tongue tied after the Lokayukta exposure and the BJP deciding to throw away Yedurappa. This is Dhananjay Kumar for you and me.