Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Friday, said that disgruntlement over not getting ministerial berths was an issue that his coalition accomplice Congress was confronting and not JD(S). He stated that things were ‘alright’ in his party.

“The issue is in the Congress. I will attempt my best to determine it. To the best of my capacity, I will bring them into certainty,” Kumaraswamy stated, even as a disappointment among Congress leaders proceeded on Friday.

Numerous senior Congress leaders, including former minister H K Patil, Satish Jarkiholi and M B Patil did not make the cut when the party reported the names of 14 ministers who are currently part of the Kumaraswamy-drove Cabinet.

The displeased pioneers have been holding separate parties and are endeavoring to mount pressure on the party authority. Their supporters, in the meantime, proceeded with protests demanding ministerial positions for their leaders.

“Everyone has goals, the inclination that they deserve and the needing to function as a minister. However, the sharing needs to occur inside a framework. These issues are regular when you are attempting to shape a government. In time, it will get diluted,” Kumaraswamy said.

Congress ministers in the Kumaraswamy government in Karnataka will be replaced with new faces after two years while non-performers will be dropped even earlier on the basis of an assessment every six months.
Congress has come up with this rotation plan to keep its ministers on their toes and send the message across that they will make way for others waiting in line. KPCC president G Parameshwara had announced a similar performance assessment for ministers in the previous Siddaramaiah government but it did not take off.
AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, K C Venugopal, told TOI on Thursday that the party high command had worked out a three-point formula on the induction of ministers and their continuity. “This is not the final cabinet. The ministers’ performance will be reviewed every six months and those not meeting targets will be asked to go. For the time being, no first-time MLA will be inducted into the cabinet. The six berths which have not been filled will be kept on hold. The ministers’ tenure is on a rotation basis for two years,” Venugopal added.
KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao said when the reshuffle happens after two years, the new ministers who come in will have a tenure of three years. “But those who do not perform will be asked to go during the periodic six-month performance assessment,” he said.
Party members who could not make it to the cabinet have accused Venugopal and Parameshwara of failing to make the right choices. The party high command is taking a dim view of the dissent by ministerial aspirants, party sources said. “Those who are speaking against the leadership will not be considered for berths in future,” a source said.

Karnataka gets a Cabinet, Congress, JD(S) rebellions
Even a day after the swearing in, portfolios were not allocated. A senior functionary said it is likely to happen on Friday by when it is expected that the dissidence will die down.

However, many functionaries, including key members of the previous Siddaramaiah ministry who have been dropped, are not relenting. One of them, Kuruba leader H M Revanna, said he is already in talks with BJP functionaries and plans to join the party. BJP functionaries, too, admitted that Revanna had approached them and they would be glad to accommodate him.

A meeting at M B Patil’s residence in Bengaluru on Thursday was attended by disgruntled MLAs, including M T B Nagaraj, Satish Jarkiholi, K Sudhakar and Baig. Emerging from the meeting, Jarkiholi, who is also an AICC secretary, said they discussed the cabinet expansion as many were upset over not getting ministership despite their efforts to “strengthen the party”.

Recipe for disaster. Soon Congress will disappear completely. A family business led by a stupid man will surely fail.
Anilk Khan
“We’ve discussed how to set it right by bringing it to the notice of the party high command for ignoring capable and efficient aspirants,” he added.
However, Patil, who was at the forefront to demand minority religion tag for Lingayats, downplayed the meeting, saying they discussed the welfare of the party.

The Chinese government recently decided that all spermatozoa donated to Beijing’s main sperm bank must be loyal to the communist party.

Good idea! But how do you check? You can’t interview them.

Sperm bank staff make it clear that sperm donors must be card-carrying party members with Correct Political Attitudes, which means atheists who “love the party”. This will prevent fertilised eggs growing into offspring with Dangerously Wrong Ideas, such as “maybe the world is not actually on the cusp of being taken over by the glorious rising sun of Communism”.

There are similar concerns around the world. If a gay couple from the United States wants a baby carried by a surrogate mother in Asia, the Medical Tourism Corporation promises to scour India to try to find one of a particular belief group, so they can make sure the initial cells of their child-to-be are Jewish or atheist or whatever — but the company points out that most available mothers are Hindu or Muslim.

Yet maybe the main culture of the next generation will be something else altogether. A baby in the UK recently spoke his first word, the Caters News Agency reported. Instead of “mama” or “dada”, little Joe Brady said “Alexa”.

May be “digital assistant” gadgets like Alexa will take over all parental duties? Fine with me. They can raise the kids until they are old enough to understand vital commands such as “Go get me a beer.”

Parents are becoming more flexible. Several news sites recently carried the story of a mother who asked a tattooist to permanently write the name of her son Kevin on her arm. The tattooist misspelled it as “Kelvin”. So Johanna Sandstrom of Sweden changed her child’s name to Kelvin to match her tat.

People criticised her for this. But raising children is all about thinking on your feet, plus, of course: Bribery, corruption, cheating and lying.

Here are two Evil Dad Tricks that worked for this columnist: 1) Tell your children that the display of chocolate next to the supermarket checkout queue is special “dogs only” candy. 2) Instead of buying expensive tickets to the aquarium, show the children the fish display in the window of your local fishmonger shop and say: “Shh! They’re sleeping.”

Oh, you start off imagining that you are going to raise an angelic child who wears only natural fibres. Pretty soon, you’re happy enough if you can keep the little monster from running naked out of the house. One father recently wrote on Twitter that he asked his six-year-old son to get dressed for school and the boy snapped back: “OMG, why are you so obsessed with clothes?”

A TV presenter recently admitted that she and her husband sometimes travel first class in aircraft while putting their children in economy. First class should be “a huge treat that you have earned”, explained Kirstie Allsopp of the UK. I like this idea. I wonder if her children live in a small hut in the yard of the family mansion, not having earned a house?

Meanwhile, non-parents should practise their acting skills by ordering a whole fish whenever they are dining with children. “Shh! It’s sleeping.”

(Nury Vittachi is an Asia-based frequent traveller. Send ideas and comments via his Facebook page)