The Bharatiya Janata Party has missed the opportunity to give representation to the broad spectrum of intellectuals and the educated which had voted for it in the Assembly elections, while nominating five persons to the Karnataka Legislative Council on June 21.

Karnataka is being called a frontier State in the fields of science and technology, but the new ruling party of the State does not find even a single scientist from the State worthy of nomination to the Legislative Council! With the exception of the minister Dr. Mumtaz Ali Khan and the Professor of Sanskrit S.R.Leela, the Party has opted for two successful entrepreneurs and one from the already well represented film industry.

Of the five, only one, the lone woman Dr.S.R.Leela is stated to have an RSS background. The other faithfuls from the Rashtreeya Swayamsevak Sangh do not find a place. So far not one of them had been nominated in the State as the BJP first came to power only in February 2006. Those RSS leaders like K.Narahari and Karamballi Sanjeeva Shetty had been elected to the Council.

Viewed from any angle, it is difficult to defend the nomination of M.R.Doreswamy Naidu and the former MP from Dharwad North Vijay Sankeshwar to the Upper House. Naidu has established and managed an engineering college which has acquired a reputation and also a few other institutions. But he cannot be called an educationist in the strict sense. He is not an academic but a successful manager in the field of education. No doubt he is well connected with the State BJP leadership.

The defence collapses when it comes to Vijay Sankeshwar. Though he was in the Party in the past and got elected to the Lok Sabha three times, he had quit the party. In the 2004 elections, he had floated his own party the Kannada Nadu which had won one seat. He had dreamt of coming to power and had fielded 180 candidates. He is no doubt a successful and leading transport operator of the State. He had also founded and managed for some years one of the leading Kannada dailies. It is stated that his nomination was dictated by the fact that the BJP could not accommodate him in its probable list of Party candidates for the next Lok Sabha elections. The Dharwad North seat is now held by the low profile Prahlad Joshi and the Party can ill afford to disturb him whatever be its calculations. The BJP has condoned his action in deserting the Party and has rewarded him.

Of the five, there was certainty about the nomination of Dr.Mumtaz Ali Khan. Contrary to expectations, the Party did not get him elected to the Council from the Legislative Assembly constituency. With his high qualifications and record as a teacher, Dr.Khan deserved the nomination. He has also dared the orthodox Muslim point of view through his bold writings against religious extremism in the community. It also needs courage to be the odd Muslim in a Party which does not hesitate to stand by the Hindus.

No doubt there be might some criticism from purists who expect a nominated legislator to remain neutral and he should not be appointed a minister. They are reminded that a convention of that kind was broken after the very first Assembly elections held in composite Madras State in 1952. The governor of that State till then, Sir Krishna Kumar Sinhji, the Maharaja of Bhavanagar had resigned and the scholarly Dr.Sri Prakasha had taken his place. On the advice of Jawaharlal Nehru, Sri Prakasha nominated Chakravarthi Rajagopalachary to the Legislative Council and he became the Congress chief minister of the State. It was done to thwart Andhra Kesari T.Prakasam and the communists led by V.Nagi Reddy from forming a non-Congress government.

It is noteworthy that no journalist has been nominated this time. The last time, a journalist was nominated was in 1998- P.Ramiah of The Hindu. He proved himself to be an able and active legislator. The other person to be nominated this time is Dodda Range Gowda, poet and film lyricist. The film industry is already well represented in the House by veteran artistes Mukhyamantri Chandru and Srinath. Chandru is also the Chairman of the Kannada Development Authority.

The last time a scientist was nominated was in 1980 when the then chief minister R.Gundu Rao brought to the House the Late Dr.H.Narasimhaiah, former vice-chancellor of the Bangalore University. He became a very active member and generally spoke on matters related to education, science and the scientific temper. In later years, the noted eye surgeon M.C.Modi (of eye camp fame) came to be nominated.

Over the years, in Karnataka as well as the five other States where the Legislative Councils exist, professional politicians are being favored for nomination. Article 171 (5) does not speak of nomination of eminent persons. It only says that the members to be nominated by the Governor shall consist of persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as the following, namely- Literature, science, art, cooperative movement and social service. The wording of the Article (especially namely and social service) gives enough room for bringing in professional politicians.

There is at least one case of the governor rejecting a recommendation for nomination. In 2004, the then governor T.N.Chaturvedi rejected the nomination of Bandeppa Kashampur (now a JD-S MLA) proposed by the S.M.Krishna government on the ground that he did not fulfill the constitutional requirements. The same government had appointed him as Chairman of the State's permanent Backward Classes Commission, though he was a non-graduate. Only a person qualified to be a judge of the High Court can become the chairman of the Commission and Kashampur's appointment was withdrawn.

It is another thing that in April 2006, the Supreme Court rejected a public interest litigation challenging the nomination of journalist Chandan Mitra and newspaper owner Shobana Bhartia to the Rajya Sabha. The petitioner, the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, had contended that persons having political affiliations could only contest elections and could not be nominated.

Prof.Leela is perhaps the first teacher of Sanskrit to find nomination. The BJP has recognized the importance of the language and scholarship in it. In recent years, the S.M.Krishna government had set the worst record in the matter of nomination. It preferred members of the Congress party and failed to recognize the merit of deserving persons who are without roots in politics. In contrast was the Kengal Hanumanthaiya government which nominated persons of the stature of the violin maestro T.Chowdaiah and the freedom fighter and eminent writer Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar. Though the doyenne of Hindustani classical music Gangubai Hanagal came to be nominated, she had aged and could make little contribution. There is talent aplenty in Karnataka but the Government is not willing to see and hear. The BJP has gone about in the routine manner of caste and community considerations in the nominations.