New Delhi, July 15
Janata Dal-Secular president and former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda, along with three MPs, is not likely to support the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre during the confidence vote on July 22.
Formally, the JD-S maintains that its political affairs committee (PAC) will decide as to whom to vote only on July 18 in Bangalore.
But Gowda issued a statement here on Tuesday criticising the manner in which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was trying to mobilise support and clearly indicated his disinclination to save the government.
He said, “I too have been fortunate to serve this country as the Prime Minister and both the BJP and the Congress voted together to oust my government. I feel proud that despite being projected by a section of the media as an opportunist and a betrayer, I did not succumb at that time to the bait offered by either the communal or market forces to remain in office.”
He said, “After the mythological Kauravas and Pandavas played the Chaturanga and pawned everything, including the modesty of their own women, it is perhaps for the first time that one finds such blatant and immoral power game in the nation’s history.”
He made an oblique reference to the manner in which the CBI had started hounding BSP leader Mayawati soon after this government made friends with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and its general secretary Amar Singh.
Disapproving of this Gowda said, “I am also pained over the manner in which the constitutionally created institutions are being subverted to subserve political interests and settle
scores against political rivals. There cannot be a greater threat to a healthy democracy and the credibility of such institutions.
He said, “I am saddened and deeply hurt by the developments in national politics over the past few days. Apart from the overnight u-turns in political ideologies, affiliations and loyalties, the apparently vital role being played out by the corporate world in full public glare in deciding the political future of this great nation is not only absurd but a disgrace to democracy itself.”
Meanwhile, Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel called on him here on Tuesday.
But sources close to Gowda said, “In Karnataka, state Congress leaders are dead opposed to any tie-up with the JD-S even after they got their MP elected to the Rajya Sabha with our support. Some Congress leaders have threatened in Karnataka that if there is any understanding with the JD-S then more Congress MLAs will desert the party and join the BJP,” a JD-S source said adding, “Why should we do anything to hurt the Congress party.”
Moreover, “If Gowda decides to vote against the government then he not only gets his one MP from Kerala Veerendra Kumar back in the party but also the entire Kerala unit of the party,” the party sources said.
