Cabinet expansion: The veiled discontentment
The very first labour of coalition government has borne great results. History has shown that even absolute majority governments often face challenging situations while distributing the power offices to MLAs, and this government is resting on a weak foundation in terms of coalition partners. Cabinet expansion is much like proving the trust vote second time over, just so that no one leaves your side and the government remains safe and sound. And just as it happens, dissidence too has set in among the berth aspirants who weren’t made ministers this time. Some had expected at least a handful of disappointed MLAs would go and join the other side that’s waiting for its chance. But with no such thing happening, those seeking some drama over this are being disappointed. The major achievement as of now is that the whole unit is staying together.
The baby of a cabinet that was born after this difficult labour, is healthy and happy. Even the mother is doing good! So this is a massive accomplishment. Dissidence in this context is running like an undercurrent now. CM Kumaraswamy has to continue functioning even amidst this chaos. Some MLAs in Congress have made their unhappiness over not being made part of the cabinet so evident that it can take the party by storm anytime now. As expected, Vokkaligas have got maximum seats in the cabinet. Even in Congress, the control indirectly exists in minister D K Shivakumar’s hands. Lingayats are in second position on this, while the man who spearheaded the Lingayat-separate-dharma movement in last government, M B Patil has been kept out of the cabinet. The Lingayat movement had created some massive strides in RSS circles because lakhs of people had come together demanding a separate religion tag for their community. This had created a massive division between Lingayats and Veerashaivas. Congress had to face the accusation of having tried to polarize in the name of separate dharma. Owing to the fact that Lingayats didn’t vote favourably for Congress, the party seems to have set this agenda aside for the moment and hence M B Patil has been ignored. Patil voiced his unhappiness rather openly too.
How will this influence the Lingayat movement in the coming days? Only time holds the answer for this. Another Congress leader Satish Jarkiholi, who is trying to build his own political force, has also been ignored in the new cabinet. Coming from a Dalit community, Satish has set up a secular brigade ‘Manava Bandhutva’ (Human bonds) and was a major aspirant of a berth this time. He is also economically very strong as well and can be a fit alternative for D K Shivakumar among the Dalits. Hence the Cong leaders are keeping Jarkiholi at a distance, by using his brother Ramesh Jarkiholi and made him the minister. Now obviously, one family cannot have two ministers! That’s a smart move. Almost inactive but influential leaders such as R V Deshpande have been successful in clinching a berth owing to their caste and economic prowess. U T Khader and Zameer have managed a berth each, representing coastal Karnataka. Having come from JD(S) Zameer had to be made the minister from Cong side, but one does wonder if he would have been given bigger responsibility had be stayed loyal to JD(S). H Vishwanath too is an aspirant in JD(S). He has played a massive role in defeating Siddaramaiah in Chamundeshwari. He has also been kept at an arm’s length now. Shamanur and H K Patil are among deserving ministers, but many others have been kept out of the berth. Datta should have been nominated to upper house. But all values have fallen flat before money power.
All those dissident voices are sure to blackmail the new government, with BJP using this to its advantage. CM Kumaraswamy will have to ensure he runs a government managing every elected representative. But then ever since he took oath, the second time CM has been busy conducting rituals after rituals and watching out for auspicious time for every government duty. Dalit leader Parameshwar who is the Deputy CM, has surrendered himself to Vaidika rituals completely forgetting the ideals of Ambedkar. The only ray of hope in this situation is Mahesh from BSP who has been given a berth. The community hopes he’d hold up their ideals for better future.
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Sunrisers Hyderabad scrape to 162/5 against wily Mumbai Indians in IPL clash
Mumbai, Apr 17 (PTI): Sunrisers Hyderabad found late momentum with the bat to fight their way through and post 162 for 5 against Mumbai Indians on a tricky pitch in their Indian Premier League match here on Thursday.
With the surface at the Wankhede Stadium providing grip and turn for the spinners and slower deliveries giving dividends to the pace bowlers, Sunrisers Hyderabad batters struggled to adapt to the wicket for most part of the innings.
But a big finish -- 57 runs coming off the last five overs -- gave SRH some much-needed impetus towards the end.
MI bowlers were spot-on in formulating their plans and near-perfect in their execution with Jasprit Bumrah delivering a measly 4-0-21-1, Trent Boult nailing his yorkers again to return 4-0-29-1 and Will Jacks producing an impressive 3-0-14-2.
The SRH struggle was evident from the start even as Abhishek Sharma stroked his way to 40 off 28 balls with seven boundaries.
It all started with an eventful first over when the two SRH openers got a reprieve each off Deepak Chahar.
Abhishek went down the wicket, swinging his bat on the first delivery. The ball shaped away slightly to take the edge but Jacks failed to get hold of it.
On the fourth delivery, Travis Head played one straight to Karn Sharma at midwicket where he failed to pluck a low catch as the ball fell just short of him.
Abhishek looked to be hitting his strides when he smacked three fours off Chahar in the fifth over but there was just no momentum gained.
If Karn had failed to judge the catch early on, substitute fielder Raj Angad Bawa did not when Abhishek hit one off Hardik Pandya in the eighth over towards sweeper cover.
Bawa timed his dive to grab the ball for the first breakthrough and by the time Abhishek was dismissed, it was evident that SRH would have to scrape their way through to a competitive total on this wicket.
Jacks then snaffled the key wicket of Ishan Kishan by getting the former MI player stumped for a mere two.
At the other end, Head was unable to open up even as he tried his best to cut loose. Despite having caught off a no-ball with Pandya overstepping in the 10th over, Head failed to capitalise as he fell for an ordinary 29-ball 28.
Such was the impact of MI’s control that the first six of the game came as late as in the 18th over -- the best one of SRH’s innings — when Heinrich Klaasen (37 off 28 balls, 3x4s, 2x6s) took 21 runs to spoil Chahar’s figures (4-0-47-0).
In the final over, Aniket Verma hit a couple of sixes and Pat Cummins smacked one to take vital 22 runs off Pandya.
