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Deve Gowda ridicules Hegde's plan to return to Karnataka

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda today launched a scathing attack on Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde and ridiculed the Lok Shakti's appeal to him to return to Karnataka politics.

Though Deve Gowda repeatedly stressed that the ruling Janata Dal's rally in Bangalore to protest against the Centre's policies was not aimed at any individual, he launched a broadside against his bete noir without once mentioning his name in his 30-minute speech.

The Janata Dal is prepared to accept the challenge, he said. Karnataka is not barren and anyone can enter politics in the state without invitation, he scoffed.

There are many people in the state who can make good chief ministers, he added. "Let him enter the ring [akhada]. We will fight and work together," he declared.

Deve Gowda urged state Janata Dal president and Deputy Chief Minister K Siddaramaiah and Chief Minister J H Patel to point out the failures of the Hegde regime of the Eighties. "Don't make me say all about that one person. Please, you also tell [people] how that government had worked," he said. As an example, he pointed out that state government cheques had bounced when Hegde was the chief minister.

He objected to Hegde's statement that the Janata Dal administration is bad. He said he did not understand what Patel meant by calling Hegde a statesman. Was he appreciating him or ridiculing him in his own style, he wondered.

Deve Gowda declared that the Janata Dal is ready to face a mid-term election to the Lok Sabha.

He said indications are that a mid-term poll is certain. Even the Congress has announced that it is ready to face such an election, he pointed out.

Earlier, Transport Minister P G R Sindhia, who has reportedly incurred Deve Gowda's wrath, was hit by slippers and a stone at the rally.

About an hour before the rally, commotion broke out when Sindhia arrived. A section of the crowd hollered that he should not be allowed on the dais as he had told people in his assembly constituency of Kanakapura not to attend the rally.

As the crowd raised slogans, police tried to pacify them. Meanwhile, some slippers and a stone flung at the dais hit Sindhia.

The minister, however, was not injured and remained there despite efforts by a senior officer to persuade him to leave. One of Sindhia's supporters hurled a slipper back into the crowd.

The minister moved away only after Bangalore Police Commissioner Revanasiddaiah intervened.

Sindhia refused to comment on the incident. "I don't know the motive behind it," he said.

Labour Minister B L Shankar, who was removed as state Janata Dal president last month, also faced opposition from the crowd.

Reacting to it, he said such incidents would mar the party's image.

Sindhia and Shankar later sat together when the rally began two hours behind schedule, by when the crowd had calmed down.

UNI

The Karnataka state page

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