Song and dance over BSY-Gowda meeting

BANGALORE:  Going by the buildup and nature of demands placed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda before Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa about the developmental activities in Hassan district, the 120 minute meeting between the two on Friday turned out to be a damp squib.
It was made to look like a big show since, apart from the Chief Minister, as many as 14 Cabinet Ministers, the Chief Secretary and 20 principal secretaries of different departments were present at the meeting to discuss and decide the pace of activities to be taken up on Gowda's home turf. "What could have been dismissed in a few minutes across the table, was turned into a big show by the government in order to placate Gowda. This is a wrong precedent," a top official remarked, after emerging from the meeting. Each of the 16 demands put forth by Gowda in his memorandum was expected to be taken up on a routine basis by various departments of the government. Apart from Gowda himself as MP, there are four JD(S) MLAs representing the district and almost all the rungs of the local self government are controlled by the JD (S).