GOVERNORS often make inane remarks against their governments, if any, but the observation of the Karnataka governor, Mr H K Bharadwaj on Tuesday that corrupt ministers in the state should not be allowed to continue in office and nobody can be given licence to do corruption is virtual indictment of his own government.

The BJP government has naturally taken objection to Mr Bharadwaj’s remarks, but the fact that he met the President, Ms Pratibha Patil and discussed this issue with her underscores the seriousness of the issue. In fact the opposition in Karnataka spent the night inside the Karnataka Assembly on Monday-Tuesday demanding a CBI probe in the role of the Reddy brothers who are ministers in the BJP government in illegal mining. Mr Bharadwaj’s desperate expression points to the magnitude of corrupt practices. Had it not been the case, probably Mr Bharadwaj would not have written to the Election Commission raising two questions: office of profit, and also conflict of interest. Since a minister is being paid by the state good salary, good perks... how can he do this kind of things? It is worth recalling that the Reddy brothers at one stage had decided to pull down the BJP government led by Mr B S Yeddyurappa for the reason that he was trying to stop illegal mining. A week back Mr Yeddyurappa had revealed that there has been large-scale illegal mining in Karnataka in the last 10 years and in 2007-08 alone, 4.7 million tonnes of iron ore was exported from the state without a licence. But the fact remains that between 2003 and now over 30 million tonnes of iron ore has been illegally mined and exported from Karnataka causing a huge revenue loss. Congress and JD-S claim that the illegal mining scam is worth around Rs 60,000 crore. Even after having evidence of involvement of the Reddy brothers in illegal mining, the BJP was vacillating to proceed against them. Mr Yeddyurappa must act decisively to end the intimidation of illicit billions earned by the Reddy brothers. Some time losing power in the greater interest of the state and people is more profitable than sticking to power and being accused of encouraging corrupt practices and protecting corrupt ministers. He ought not to forget that it was his reluctance to take action against illegal mining that was the main reason for the Karnataka Lokayukta, Mr Santosh Hegde resigning.