How Karnataka politicians are turning to technology for interactions amid coronavirus

Even Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who pulls out small chits from his pocket while speaking to prompt him on issues, video-conferenced with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
How Karnataka politicians are turning to technology for interactions amid coronavirus
How Karnataka politicians are turning to technology for interactions amid coronavirus
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The 21-day nation-wide lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic seems to have a positive side to it. It is teaching some of the tech-challenged politicians in Karnataka, for whom mobile phones were meant only to make and receive calls or check messages, to turn savvy and become part of the virtual world in view of social distancing and health protocols.

Seventy-seven-year-old Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who is comfortable pulling out small chits from his pocket while speaking to prompt him on issues, video-conferenced with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who chatted with CMs of states on Thursday for updates on the pandemic. Former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who has a smart social media team, also video-conferenced with his party MLAs from Mandya and Tumakuru districts, while the Congress party has set up a virtual war room.

Though a tad late, with the COVID-19 tally in Karnataka pegged at 124 cases including 19 positive and three deaths as on Thursday, the state Congress unit constituted a 15-member war room with former minister and senior party MLA Krishna Byre Gowda as the chairman. This is in addition to the task force headed by former legislative assembly speaker KR Ramesh Kumar comprising doctors and former health ministers.

Speaking to TNM, Byre Gowda said the first meeting of the virtual war room will be held on April 4 on Zoom, a web-based video conferencing tool that allows users to meet online.

“The war room will act as a facilitator by trying to arrange relief to people either from the state government or the party. All members in the group have been assigned districts and we will also be getting inputs from the control room of the party,” he added.

The state Congress unit had set up a call centre recently where those in distress can call on these numbers: 8197042379 and 9986926365.

Byre Gowda said there will be no overlap of functions with the party’s task force as the latter will be monitoring the measures being taken by the state government. “The task force takes policy decisions while we coordinate throughout the state. We will not be entering the task force’s domain,” he added.

An initial meeting of the war room held on Thursday at Congress Bhavan is said to have discussed the arbitrary supply of ration by the state government, control room getting calls from students who are being asked by landlords to vacate, and shortage of ventilators. As the war room panel has two legislators, Byre Gowda and NA Haris, complaints such as scarcity of ventilators will be taken up by them with the government directly.

Former KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao’s wife Tabu (Tabassum) Rao, who has been made a member of the war room as she is active on social media, said the war room’s role will be more to do with dissemination of information and also to concentrate in constituencies where the party is not represented by its legislator.

MN Suraj Hegde, convenor of the war room, said this was a replication of the war room set up at the AICC level headed by Rajiv Satav. Hegde will be hosting the meeting on Zoom; all members have been asked to sign up for the web-based tool. The AICC in a recent communique had asked all state units to avoid holding office meetings and opt for video conferencing.

“Our war room will play the role of firefighting,” Hegde added.

Naheed Ataulla is a journalist who has covered Karnataka politics for over two decades, and is a former Political Editor of The Times of India. Views expressed are the author’s own.

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