'Nataka' in Kannada means a simple English word. Drama! Kar'nataka' in the last 4 years has seen plenty of it in its politics. High drama. Theatre of the absurd even! The last 4 years since 2004 has seen three successive governments. A motley mix of political folk cobbling together alliances called coalitions. The first one started off with a Congress led Congress-JD(S) government headed by Mr. Dharam Singh, a senior Congress leader of Karnataka, who was found acceptable by the King-maker patriarch of the JD(S), Mr. H D Deve Gowda. This coalition was a necessity as the electorate had given a fractured mandate. The BJP, Congress and JD(S) lined up in that order in terms of seats in the 224 member Karnataka Legislative Assembly. The government hobbled along. Decision making was relegated to a corner. The coalition just did not work. This was a government that was just there doing a holding operations. The hobble continued. Till the...