YeddY suPPORTeRs gO FROm eCsTAsY TO AgONY
Voters in general are feeling bad that the Congress-JDS combine forced Yeddyurappa out in the name of secularism.
TThe mood of the people in Karnataka kept swinging left, right and centre as and when pieces of information kept trickling in during the three-day high drama, beginning right from showing the trends of assembly election results on TV till the time BJP veteran B.S. Yeddyurappa tendering his resignation as Chief Minister, like never before.
The state saw unprecedented reaction from millions of people. The initial lead that the BJP got brought in a kind of euphoria among the urban voters and the Lingayat community alike. But it subsided a little as the saffron party settled for 104, just 8 short of majority. However, the fractured verdict still saw assertion of Yeddyurappa. For his supporters, it was a moment that they had been waiting for half a decade.
Tejasvi, a young social media wing activist of BJP, was euphoric till Friday, but the outcome of Saturday trust vote made him feel sad. The dramatic resignation of Yeddyurappa shocked him like millions of others. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, he said, “The speech of Yeddyuarppaji was quite emotional. We will double our resolve to work hard for the party here on. It is sad to link Yeddyurappa to one caste as was made out. He is a mass leader.”
Tejasvi was not alone in the BJP who felt cheat- ed. The mandate, many claimed, belonged to the BJP and not to anybody else. The young brigade in the party, which had really worked hard, was equally shocked. Harish Gowda, Bengaluru city secretary of party’s youth front BYJM, was not convinced by the sequence of events. “I am a Vokkaliga, but at same time an Indian. It’s sad that the Opposition converted the fight to Lingayat versus Vokkaliga. Modiji has ensured that all of us work for the nation. We are determined to do the same, so what if we are no longer in power,” said a disenchanted Harish speaking to
“Interestingly, all this was happening in a city where nearly half the voters didn’t turn up to cast their vote on the polling day. While the poll percentage in Karnataka was 72.11%, Bengaluru city recorded just over 51.3% polling with some constituencies polling as low as 43.6%,” said Feroze Sait, an activist who encourages people to vote.
Feroze, who runs voluntary organisation Harmony Foundation, was highly critical of city voters for their apathy. “People in Bengaluru can’t spare 30 minutes to go out and vote but will spend 30 hours a month to complain about infrastructure. If only they spend that half an hour to elect a good leader, they won’t have to spend 30 hours a month complaining,” he said.
Even as political observers and election analysts were trying hard to gauge the voter’s mind, a question that many of them asked was: If even a record 72.11% couldn’t throw up a clear mandate for any party, what would it take to show public sentiment strongly?
The turn of events may have seen the swing from one extreme to another, but the voters in general felt bad that the combined Opposition forced Yeddyurappa out in the name of secularism. As IT professional Vikram Shetty put it, “I have no interest in politics but robbing Yeddyurappa of his mandate is very sad. They have no future to offer but are coming together in name of secularism.”
With the high drama set to continue in the days to come, people have their fingers crossed. The Ministry of Steel has asked steel PSUs such as Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) to improve on their marketing strategies to project steel as a construction material better than cement or plastic, with an aim to boost domestic consumption of the alloy.
The ministry is trying hard to convince its counterparts handling infrastructure sectors such as surface transport, housing and railways by highlighting the merits of using steel and slag in constructing bridges, roads and buildings.
The life of a steel bridge is 80 to 100 years, while the concrete one needs a complete overhaul in 40 to 50 years, it says. It also takes half the time to erect a steel bridge compared to their concrete counterparts. Studies have shown that steel slag is a better material than others for road construction.
The Transport Ministry has formed a task force to look into the matter.
India is one of the world’s largest steel producers and the sector has been a major contributor to the country’s manufacturing output. But the industry is facing problems for the last couple of years owing to a number of reasons, mainly cheap imports and low domestic consumption.
As for the housing sector, the Steel Ministry plans to provide affordable homes made of steel which are costeffective and more durable.
It has prepared prototypes of steel which cost less than Rs 2 lakh a unit and are three times more durable than the present structure. The ministry has even prepared prototypes of affordable house for the Rural Development Ministry. Though Railways has been using steel in building bridges across rivers and tough terrain for more than to 15%, the steel ministry’s point is that the longevity factor would make up for the extra cost in the long run, ultimately benefiting all stakeholders.
SAIL has embarked on a campaign, “SAIL Structurals: The Future of Steel Design” to drive the point home. “Structurals” are the steel products with applications in structures such as angles, beams, channels and sections going into the invisible skeleton of huge structures. The steel major has been producing these structurals since 1960s.
The initiative aims at further promoting the structurals that are one of the primary inputs in any kind of construction project worldwide. There is a growing need for them in the infrastructure sector where specialised beams, angles, flanges and joists are required to complete projects more efficiently in terms of design, construction time, strength and cost.
Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, SAIL director