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The Rediff Interview/ S M Krishna

'Today, you have to seize whatever opportunity comes your way'

He said send in all the ladies first," announced an aide as he walked into Chief Minister S M Krishna's front office in his house at Sadashivanagar in Bangalore. All the women rose quickly and walked towards his private sitting room.

As his aides motioned me in, M D Riti walked into the now-familiar sitting room and saw Krishna seated on his favourite sofa in one corner. All other women were politicians, and she chose to sit at a distance and watch as they appealed, one at a time, to Krishna to give them the opportunity to serve the society by appointing them on important boards, committees and councils. Krishna, dressed in a cream linen kurta pyjamas, a well-washed brown-checked shawl tossed carelessly over his left shoulder, heard them all out patiently and promised to examine their requests at leisure.

Then, it was Riti's turn. Another aide brought in tiny trays of delicious pista sweets and salted cashewnuts. Krishna promptly helped himself to one of each and sat back comfortably to chat with rediff.com about his first month in office...

You had set yourself quite a stiff target for the first 100 days in office. Now that you have completed almost a third of that time, how close would you say you are to achieving your targets?

You will have to wait for another two months. But, let me remind you that miracles cannot happen in 100 days in a backward country like ours. We can only set targets. In fact, you need 90 days to decide on what targets one should set.

All I can say is that we have already formed our first task force for the IT industry. A few more task forces would be announced in the coming weeks. Once these teams get down to work, they may be in a position to give us some inputs on what should be done.

Had you set yourself any specific goals that were to be achieved in 100 days?

Hundred-day goals are alright for countries like the US, Germany and Japan. But for a developing country, with a developing economy like ours, 100 days do not mean much.

Your critics like Janata Dal-United leader M C Nanaiah have said that it would be more productive if you made your administration more efficient and less corrupt.

Nanaiah and his government knew nothing about their functioning, so they have no business talking about mine. The kind of dynamism we have brought into the administration in 30 days, they could not do it in five years! They hardly ever went to Vidhana Soudha (the state secretariat), so let them not criticise me.

Do you have any particular software in mind for the state administration? I heard that you were trying to acquire some constituency management software.

Yes, I would like to keep track of every development work in all 224 assembly constituencies. One major area of concentration would be roads. I will be announcing a very big programme tomorrow about road development. I would like to use a software to help me monitor all this.

But don't you think you're functioning more like the chief minister of Bangalore by focusing all your energy on the development of Bangalore and the industries concentrated here?

My critics accuse me of focusing only on Bellary because a re-election is due there. Others allege that I am concentrating on Kodagu district too much because some people there are asking for a separate state. As a chief minister I will have to focus on specific areas.

If I can provide 500 megawatts of power from Bellary in the next three years, it will benefit the entire state. If I can clear up the roads of Bangalore and construct flyovers all over the city, it will help everyone. After all, Bangalore belongs to every Kannadiga and not to only those who live here.

I want Bangalore to become the showcase for Karnataka. What is the impression that an average tourist or investor gets about Karnataka when he steps out of the airport?

But will such investors be willing to put money into backward areas of Karnataka? Bangalore is already growing, but nobody is going to Raichur or Belgaum.

This concept of helping backward areas and forward areas belongs to the 70s. Today, the new philosophy is to seize whatever opportunity comes your way. It is to come out on top in any competition. The new philosophy is to get things done. I now refuse to think in terms of sending industries to backward areas. I did a lot of that when I was industries minister. But today, there is a qualitative change in the whole set-up and approach. The old approach is no longer valid.

Do you think all this will really bring investments into Karnataka?

I certainly hope so. Investments in all sectors of industry, whether it is IT or power or whatever.

So your interest in power projects continues? You had the power portfolio in the last Congress regime.

Yes, I have retained that portfolio and propose to pursue a lot of the plans I could not complete at that time.

Your ministry is being described as top heavy. How can this huge body move quickly and efficiently to achieve all this?

It doesn't matter whether it's top heavy or bottom heavy. Only the media likes to use such cliches to describe us. I have done what I think is best for the state and the results will be there for all to see.

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