Profiles in Courage. It is no coincidence that Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna is reading the John F. Kennedy masterpiece. As he candidly points out, the lives of the American heroes in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book are very inspiring. And inspiration is something he desperately needs at the moment.

When he took over the reins of power on October 11, 1999, Krishna was a picture of enterprise. Aware of the software sector's potential in which Bangalore already had a headstart, he sought to synergise infotech with polity. He got his officials laptops, walked into the computer science department of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, one morning to learn the basics of PowerPoint presentation, threw out dust-laden files and moth-eaten papers and installed gadgets in his third-floor office in the Vidhana Soudha. Riding the crest of a popularity wave, he barked orders to faraway district collectors using video-conference facilities. Clearly, he wanted to give his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu a run for his neo-techie image.

INTERVIEW: S.M. KRISHNA

"Even US can't catch Osama"

Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna speaks to Principal Correspondent stephen david on the crises surrounding his administration. Excerpts:

Q. You are neck-deep in problems-the border tension, Cauvery issue, Nagappa crisis, allegation that the Government paid Rs 20 crore to Veerappan. A. Challenges only come to those who have the guts to face them. As Martin Luther King said, "We shall overcome." Q. You compared the hunt for Veerappan to the search for Osama bin Laden. A. I was making the point that it is difficult for even a superpower to catch bin Laden. We have not captured Veerappan because of the tough terrain. I am also disgusted with the way some of the stf chiefs have conducted themselves. Q. Former Karnataka police chief C. Dinakar says you paid Rs 20 crore as ransom to Veerappan to free Rajkumar. A. The allegations are nothing new. These have been made by Tamil Nadu too. Perhaps this man's roots in that state are still very strong. Q. Dinakar has named you personally in the book. A. Since he has named me personally, it is going to be S.M. Krishna who will initiate action and not the chief minister. Q. Have you read the book? A. No, whatever I have read is from the newspapers. I don't want to read a book written by someone who has totally betrayed my confidence. Q. Are you facing pressure from within the party? A. No, I have the support of the Congress high command.

Krishna's efforts did not go unnoticed: twice he was voted India's best chief minister in opinion polls conducted by india today. Three years down the line, the gung-ho spirit has given way to ennui. So what went wrong? "He may be a good man," says bjp leader Jagadish Shettar, "but he has become weak. There is no second in command and most of his ministers and bureaucrats are colourless." The earlier phalanx of do-gooders has simply disappeared.

The 71-year-old chief minister is suddenly finding himself on a sticky wicket. "Krishna's problems are both manmade and natural," says Janata Dal leader C. Byre Gowda. "The drought that worsened the Cauvery crisis may have been beyond his control, but the failure to nab Veerappan on time did him in." Two years ago, when the infamous outlaw held Kannada matinee idol Rajkumar hostage for 108 days, Krishna should have put pressure on the police to hem him in. Today, he remains exasperatingly elusive, more than 100 days since kidnapping former Janata Dal leader Hanur Nagappa from his farmhouse near Mysore.

Nagappa's release may be possible only after jailed Tamil activist Kolathur Mani treks to the forest as the Government's unofficial envoy, as demanded by Veerappan. But even though Mani is yet to get bail in two cases, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa threatens to ruin Krishna's plans. She says she will arrest Mani if he steps into Tamil Nadu territory, even if it is to negotiate with Veerappan.

Krishna's irritation over the failure to arrest Veerappan is evident. "I must admit the failure of the police force. They tell me Veerappan is operating in an 18,000 sq km area, a terrain our men find extremely difficult to comb" (See interview). Krishna is now even contemplating disbanding the 12-year-old Special Task Force that has failed to achieve its mission of catching Veerappan. "It's very disturbing," he says. It shows on him. His security adviser on Veerappan affairs, former state police chief T. Srinivasalu, is planning to give him a report on the stf on which nearly Rs 40 crore has been spent so far.

Things would have been manageable if his troubles had ended there. But last month, another former state police chief C. Dinakar alleged, in his book Veerappan's Prize Catch, that Krishna paid a ransom of Rs 20 crore to the outlaw to secure Rajkumar's release. Krishna says he is considering legal action against Dinakar, but the former police chief is unperturbed. "What I have written is the truth. Let me see what action they can take against me," he says defiantly.

The bureaucracy could be the millstone around Krishna's neck-by his own admission "a rather heavy burden". Trusted aide and principal secretary for more than three years, S.V. Ranganath voluntarily moved to the Centre as joint secretary in the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore. Krishna's chief secretary, A. Ravindra, like most of the 250-odd ias officers in Karnataka, hasn't pitched in effectively. Those who have shown results can be counted on the fingertips: Commissioner Jayakar Jerome, who has turned the bleeding Bangalore Development Authority into a Rs 300 crore cash chest; Additional Revenue Secretary Rajeev Chawla who has been spearheading the Bhoomi project-computerisation of land records for farmers; Tourism Commissioner I.M. Vittalamurthy, and to some extent Vivek Kulkarni and Ramana Reddy who have been trying to keep the infotech and biotech flags flying high.

On Krishna's platter

Tamil Grievances * Kannada groups ban cinema halls from screening Tamil films. * Ban on Tamil TV channels in Karnataka. * Delay in unveiling the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in Bangalore.

Cauvery Dispute * Farmers in Mandya and Maddur agitate against the apex court's order to release Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu. * Krishna defies order, goes on a padyatra. * The apex court is yet to resolve the contempt case against Krishna.

Veerappan Saga * The outlaw kidnaps former minister Nagappa. * Krishna agrees to free jailed Tamil activist Mani to free Nagappa. * Jayalalitha threatens to arrest Mani if he sets foot in Tamil Nadu; approach to the jungles from Karnataka difficult.

Mahajan Report * Maharashtra contests the Mahajan recommendations (central to border dispute); threatens to go to court. * Pro-Kannada groups ask the Centre to implement the report that is in Karnataka's favour.

Krishna Waters * Andhra Pradesh wants a new tribunal to settle the issue of sharing the Krishna river waters. * Karnataka says large-scale projects in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh use surplus water, putting interests of Karnataka farmers at risk.

There are darts flying from all sides. Krishna's handling of the century-old dispute over sharing of the Cauvery waters has put him in a tight spot. He is yet to recover from the folly of disobeying the Supreme Court order on releasing water to Tamil Nadu. The apex court is yet to resolve the contempt case against him and his team of ministers but farmers in Krishna's home district, Mandya, have threatened to fan the flames on the Cauvery issue. Farmers in his assembly constituency Maddur were up in arms after he decided to release water to Tamil Nadu. A 100-km padyatra that he undertook from Bangalore to Mandya did little to redeem things.

The chief minister also has to fend off barbs from Andhra Pradesh which is demanding a share of the Krishna river water. The tdp Government has urged the Centre to constitute a fresh tribunal as the term of the Bachawat Tribunal expired in May 2000. It wants allocations among riparian states to be fixed, with full rights over surplus water, besides protection of its share awarded by the previous tribunal. Telugu Desam MPs have cautioned the Centre of dangerous consequences if the water-sharing problem is not solved.

There's bedlam on the Maharashtra border too. The state's Congress-led coalition Government has approached the Supreme Court on the border dispute-an issue which Karnataka has dismissed as a "closed chapter" following the recommendations of the Mahajan Commission in the 1967. "It is a dead issue and is raised from time to time by people with ulterior motives," says Krishna. Kannada rights leader Vatal Nagaraj, who is also the Border Area Study Commission chairman, has sought an all-party meeting to assess the situation. Kannada activist Patil Puttappa says Marathi organisations such as the Shiv Sena and the Marathi Ekkikaran Samiti are trying to create a pro-Maharashtra feeling among Kannadigas living in the border villages which, according to the Mahajan Commission report, belong to Karnataka.

Krishna is the target of opposition parties in Karnataka which have been warning him that after having allegedly "failed" to protect the state's interests on Cauvery, he should do all he can to safeguard their interests on the boundary issue. "There is no dispute with Maharashtra," says Krishna, but in villages in Belgaum district bordering Maharashtra the tension between Marathi- and Kannada-speaking groups is palpable.

THE ALLEGATIONS Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna paid a ransom of Rs 20 crore to Veerappan to free matinee idol Rajkumar and end the 108-day hostage drama. Among those who delivered the money were Krishna's son-in-law V.G. Siddhartha (Rs 10 crore), IGP (Intelligence) T. Jayaprakash Rs 5 crore and Rajkumar's wife Parvathamma Rs 1 crore. After the deal was made Krishna spoke to Veerappan on a mobile phone and the brigand confirmed the release of Rajkumar and two other hostages.

Ransom report: Dinakar says he has enough evidence to prove his point

Krishna says Karnataka is "prepared and equipped" to fight Maharashtra in the Supreme Court. "The issue can be settled once and for all if the Mahajan Commission report is accepted as final by the two states as well as the Centre," he says. "There is no dispute. What is pending is the scrupulous implementation of the report," says Krishna.

Contrary to Krishna's promise of giving more "teeth" to the lok ayukta to curb corruption, on November 22 the state Cabinet rejected a recommendation from Lok Ayukta Justice (retd) N. Venkatachala to bring employees of the state legislature under his purview and to scrap the independent jurisdiction of the lok ayukta and upalok ayukta. He had suggested a centralised structure in which any case pending before the upalok ayukta could be withdrawn by the lok ayukta for investigation.

At the moment, the beleaguered chief minister is hoping for a break-and that is likely only if the kidnapped Nagappa walks out of the jungles a free man. He has been so busy fending off one crisis after another that Krishna-president of the Karnataka Lawn Tennis Association-has hardly found time to wield the racket. Last week he showed up at Bangalore's St Mark's Cathedral for Davis Cupper Mahesh Bhupathi's wedding with model Shveta Jaishankar before flying off to Gujarat to campaign along with party President Sonia Gandhi.

"He is a capable man but he is slipping," says former chief minister and fellow art-lover Ramakrishna Hegde. But Krishna has too many things on his plate. Too many battles to fight. He isn't losing heart though. "We shall overcome some day," he says, taking refuge in the words of another American-Martin Luther King.