HVK Archives: Look who's talking
Look who's talking - Mid-day
M V Kamath
()
7 September 1996
Title : Look who's talking
Author : M V Kamath
Publication : Mid-day
Date : September 7, 1996
In an interview to The Times of India the Prime Minister,
Deve Gowda asserted that 77 per cent of the people in the
last general election voted for secularism.
They did nothing of that sort, and lies such as this must
be exposed without delay. Secularism was not the issue
in the elections. People voted for parties. Many voted
strictly on caste affiliations. Gowda should know better
than to equate voting along caste lines with secularism.
Especially in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh the voting was
strictly on caste - that is, sub-communal lines - and
it's the same in other states, though not as pronounced.
Gowda and his fellow Janata leaders should hang their
heads in shame. It is also a bit of impertinence on the
part of Gowda to claim virtues neither he nor any of his
colleagues possess. All of them are frankly communal.
Those who swear by communalism should not appeal to the
Muslims, as Muslims, to vote for them. When Gowda sends
his Jeeves, C N Ibrahim, to the Shahi Imam, it is pure
communalism. When Gowda courts the Shiv Sena it is
communalism again. If the Shiv Sena is communal, why
seek its votes?
The truth of the matter is that there is an unbridgeable
chasm between Gowda's precepts and practices. Principles
are riot involved here. What is involved is sheer
expediency. If Gowda would kindly desist from using the
word secularism in future he would do us all a great
favour. He will also be treating the English language
with respect. Words should not be used carelessly.
Words like secularism and communalism lost their meaning
a long time ago through overuse. In actual fact, Gowda
has no business to stay in power.
His is an ad hoc regime, as The Hindustan Times, a friend
of the BJP, recently pointed out, and will some day have
to give in to some one who can run the administration
better
No one trusts him any longer, not even members of his own
'United' Front. It is no secret that Laloo Prasad Yadav
is alienated from him. So are others, but they are
keeping quiet because stating their opposition to Gowda
at this point would precipitate a collapse.
Inderjit Gupta, for instance, is practically
marginalised. He was not consulted when Gowda announced
support to the formation of Uttarakhand. He was not
consulted when Gowda decided to meet the Shiv Sena chief
One wonders whether he is consulted on anything at all!
On the one hand Gowda speaks about secularism. On the
other he sends his yes-man C M Ibrahim to talk to the
Shahi Imam on one side and meets the Shiv Sena on the
other!
Will anybody believe that Gowda is trying to convert the
Shahi Imam to secularistic? The Imam has now loudly
proclaimed that he is not interested in the "hol-low
secularism" of Gowda & Co And he is light.
A further cause for embarrassment for Gowda should be the
corruption not only of Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam
Singh Yadav written in 64-point type for even the blind
to read, and of the Congress whose leaders are being
exposed daily, but of the CPI which pretends to be
cleaner than clean.
Recently the CPI has been shown up to be as vicious find
greedy as any other party. Dr Omar Ali, a former Left
Front minister and West Bengal CPI MLA, has been merrily
giving interviews to newspapers exposing the CPI's
shenanigans.
In one interview he said: " I am willing to appear before
the CBI or, for that matter, any fact-finding committee
and show how the state CPI leadership forced me to misuse
my ministerial office to raise funds for the benefit of a
few CPI leaders." Inderjit Gupta, are you listening?
Surely Gupta reads the papers?
The question arises: why is not the Gowda government
asking the CBI to investigate Dr Ali's complaints? What
is Gowda afraid of? Loss of CPI support? He claims he is
fearless. In that case all that he has to do is to ask
for a public trial of Dr Ali who is, after all, not an
insignificant person. He is a former West Bengal
minister. The CPI is no different from the Congress.
Sukh Ram has a clone in other parties, as well. If
Mayawati ordered a wholesale transfer of IAS officials,
Dr Ah was not far behind.
Several newspapers in Calcutta recently carried identical
reports on how Dr Ali was forced by the CPI leadership to
put aside ideological principles and raise funds for the
party and appoint incompetent officials to sensitive
posts, for the sake of the party.
Let it he said loudly and clearly - Gowda is presiding
over a 'United' Front composed of parties that have
neither principles nor the most elementary concept of
administrative ethics. And this front is kept in power
courtesy of the Congress which has been shown to have
even less respect for public morality.
How long is this tamasha to lasts? Narasimha Rao is
grievously mistaken if he thinks the public will keep
quiet knowing fully well what is going on. Gowda and Rao
are playing with the people's sentiments and no doubt
think they are smart. In Uttar Pradesh one can expect
the people to show these tin pot leaders who is smarter.
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