Bangalore: Deve Gowda has Fracture but Vows JD(S) will Fight Yeddy
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

BANGALORE, Jul 11: A born fighter and hard-nosed politician that he is, the former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda has vowed to carry on with his fight against the B S Yeddyurappa-led BJP regime for its lapses and failures both inside and outside the state legislature despite suffering a fracture in his left hand.

Gowda, who attended a day-long meeting of JD(S) legislature wing along with his son and lok sabha MP, H D Kumaraswamy, state JD(S) president, and legislature party leader H D Revanna and other legislators at the state party office,  with a plastered left hand.  He appeared least bothered about his physical discomfort despite his ripe age of 76 and guided the deliberations in his characteristic style.

``I woke up early in the morning and went to the bathroom. When I pushed the door, I lost balance and fell, which resulted in a fracture,’’ he said answering questions from reporters. He was immediately taken a private hospital, where he was given treatment.

But Gowda was more concerned about the plight of the farmers on account of the Yeddyurappa regime’s gross failures to make advance preparations to ensure supply of fertilisers to farmers. Except Karnataka all other states have stocked fertilisers before the onset of monsoon  but the BJP government, which started its rule with police firing against angry and agitated farmers in Haveri in May last year resulting in the death of two farmers, had not learnt the lesson. For the second  consecutive year, farmers are facing the same problem, he lamented.

The JD(S) national president lashed out at the Yeddyurappa regime for concentrating its energies and efforts on luring legislators and leaders from opposition parties under its ``Operation lotus’’ and did not have time to address the problems of farmers. ``The ruling party and its government is determined to wipe out the opposition parties in Karnataka, little realising that the farmers and people will wipe it out,’’ he said.

``It is shameful that Karnataka’s agriculture minister S A Ravindranath had himself openly admitted that the state was facing shortage of fertilisers to the tune of 20,000 tonnes,’’ Gowda said lambasting Yeddyurappa for failing to protect the interests of farmers despite taking the oath in the name of farmers.

State JD(S) president and Bangalore north MP, H D Kumaraswamy, and his brother H D Revanna, who is the new legislature party leader, warned that the JD(S) will expose the scams, failures and misdeeds of the BJP government during the ongoing legislature session and organise public agitations.

The deterioriating law and order situation, the communal clashes in Mysore and the moral policing by Bajrang Dal, Ram Sene and other Sangh Parivar outfits in the coastal region were a serious blot on the image of peace-loving Karnataka,  Kumaraswamy said, pointing out that the minorties were feeling totally insecure under the BJP rule.

The Government must explain to the people whether the communal clashes in Mysore occurred on account of differences between two BJP groups in Mysore or on account of some other reasons, Kumaraswamy said and mentioned that the internal squabbling and dissidence in the ruling party would undermine the government.

Kumaraswamy attacked the reckless profligacy of the Yeddyurappa regime in wasting public money and the chief minister’s exhortions to the bureaucracy for cutting non-plan expenditure. ``If the chief minister is so serious about cutting down wasteful expenditure and checking non-plan expenditure, why did the government spend crores of rupees on tom-toming dubious achievements through media advertisements?,’’ he asked, challenging the government to come out with a white paper on the huge expenditure incurred on the Vikas Sankalp Utsavs in Bangalore and all other revenue divisions to mark the completion of one year in office.

``Who financed the crores of rupees spent on the Vikas Sankalp Utsavs?,’’ he asked questioning the justification for the waste of funds from the state exchequer  when the country and the entire world is going through an economic recession.

Kumaraswamy claimed that several senior officials were completely disgusted at the political interference and feeling so helpless as to seriously consider putting in their papers with many having already applied for voluntary retirement. Implementation of development works has been slow and patchy and the bureaucracy was completely demoralized, he alleged.

Revanna took the Yeddyurappa regime to task for its brazen, illegal and undemocratic manner of superceding the Gulbarga-Bidar Milk Union out of ulterior motives of defeating him in the Karnataka Milk Federation’s elections. ``The BJP leaders are hell bent on dethroning me and capturing the KMF by hook or crook,’’ he said criticising the disqualification of the president and nine other elected directors of Gulbarga-Bidar Milk Union.