SM Krishna

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. Additional information may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.

Briefly

ManuAiyappa Kanathanda, Dec 11, 2024: The Times of India

Bengaluru : Former Karnataka chief minister Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna donned many roles in a six-decade political career and is credited with swiftly catalysing Bengaluru into India’s Silicon Valley.


A Padma Vibhushan and Fulbright scholar, Krishna had been battling age-related ailments. He is survived by wife Prema and daughters Malavika and Shambhavi.


His career was marked by leadership roles: Karnataka deputy CM, assembly Speaker, Union minister and Maharashtra governor. As Karnataka CM from 1999 to 2004, Krishna fashioned Bengaluru’s rise as a global IT hub. His administration inaugurated Bengaluru’s first flyover. He authored innovative policies in fields as diverse as tech and urban governance. His achievements include introduction of the mid-day meal scheme for school students and building “Brand Bengaluru”, which earned him respect across party lines.


His tenure, however, came with its quota of challenges: Three successive years of severe drought, abduction of Kannada superstar Rajkumar by forest bandit Veerappan in 2000, the Abdul Karim Telgi stamp paper scam, Chikkaballapur’s Kambalapalli violence in which seven Dalits were burnt alive, and criticism over prioritising Bengaluru over rural Karnataka. However, Krishna’s leadership during crises like the Cauvery water dispute and his efforts in leading “Panchajanya Yatra”, a relaunch vehicle for Congress in Karnataka, remain his career’s defining moments.


Born on May 1, 1932 in Maddur, Mandya district, Krishna, who came from a politically active family, made his electoral debut in the early 1960s, winning Maddur assembly seat as an Independent. He later joined Congress and served as MP twice before returning to state politics as a minister in Devaraj Urs cabinet (1972–77). In 2004, Krishna was appointed Maharashtra governor, and later Union external affairs minister (2009-–2012). In 2017 he joined BJP, citing loss of respect in his former party.


A tennis enthusiast, he helmed the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association from 1999 to 2020, revolutionising the sport in the state.