South American tour unites Karnataka MLAs like never before!

Televised footage of the stalled proceedings in Parliament may show the Congress and BJP MPs exchanging glares on the floor of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha or accusing each other of blatant corruption and garnering motamaal during the acrimonious TV news channel discussions. However, there was plenty of genuine bipartisanship to be witnessed on an ongoing all-party study tour of South America by 18 Karnataka MLAs.

Cutting across party lines, these 18 MLAs were united on the insight to be gained from the tour that involved a close look at tango-dancing in Buenos Aires and a feel of the sand at the world-famous Copacabana Beach in Rio. The MLAs bonded together while taking in the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu in Peru and boating past alligators at the Amazon Ecopark in Brazil.

And so what if critics questioned the need for Karnataka to be spending an average of Rs 7 lakh per legislator — 10 MLAs had taken their families along — at a time when the state was reeling under drought and had sought emergency central assistance to the tune of Rs 11,489 crore. As the Congress MLA B C Patil pointed out so logically when questioned by a Times Now correspondent in Buenos Aires, if crores of rupees could be spent by the Indian authorities on the jailed 26/11 Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, no one should grudge patriotic legislators a study tour of South America.

When told that the farmers were wondering whether a South American tour was necessary at a time when there was no water to drink for the cattle, Mr Patil responded that he had heard that it had started raining heavily in Karnataka and that this could end the drought. It could rain all over India if the BJP and Congress MPs and MLAs bonded together like the 18 Karnataka legislators in South America!