The Hindu : Front Page : Sangh Parivar tried to turn Karnataka into a Hindutva laboratory, says Janata Dal (S)

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Sangh Parivar tried to turn Karnataka into a Hindutva laboratory, says Janata Dal (S)

Special Correspondent

— Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

Janata Dal (S) president H. D. Deve Gowda, along with Karnataka Home Minister M. P. Prakash (second from left) and M. Shivanna MP, at a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: The Janata Dal (Secular) Political Affairs Committee, at its meeting here on Saturday, adopted a resolution accusing the Sangh Parivar outfits of trying to “turn Karnataka into a Hindutva laboratory on the lines of Gujarat.”

Keeping in mind the “overwhelming sentiments of the State legislators,” the committee was “constrained to recommend not to transfer power to the BJP, to maintain peace and communal harmony in the State of Karnataka.”

This is the text of the JD (S) resolution:

The Political Affairs Committee of the Janata Dal (Secular) has met under extraordinary circumstances, keeping in view the sudden turn of events in the state of Karnataka, where the party was having a state-level arrangement with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Fractured mandate

The last Assembly elections in Karnataka had given a fractured mandate following which the central leadership of the Congress party persuaded the national leadership of the Janata Dal (Secular) to extend support to the Congress party to form a Government in the state with the objective of keeping communal forces at bay and to avoid the burden of yet another election on the people of Karnataka.

However, some state leaders of the Congress party were hell bent on destabilising its coalition partner the Janata Dal (Secular) by harassing party leaders and workers and engineering defections. Taking a stern view of the blatant violation of the ‘coalition dharma’ by the Dharam Singh Government, the legislators of the Janata Dal (Secular) decided unilaterally to align with the BJP without consulting the party’s national leadership.

Compelling circumstances

The Janata Dal (Secular) national executive promptly reacted suspending the legislators including Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. However, subsequently, the Chief Minister and other legislators explained the compelling circumstances, which forced them to take the extreme and extraordinary step only with the objective of saving the party from being divided and destroyed by some senior leaders of the state Congress party.

The state leaders also impressed upon the leadership their avowed commitment to secular values which was given the highest importance in the Karnataka Development Front agenda arrived at with the BJP. The national leadership was also apprised about the steps being taken to implement the party’s ideological and social agenda including welfare of farmers, downtrodden, women, and minorities. Consequently, the leadership revoked the disciplinary action against the state leaders but made it categorically clear that it was purely a state-level arrangement.

Even as the state government made efforts to bring about unprecedented and revolutionary changes in the socio-economic fabric of Karnataka including safeguarding the State’s mineral resources, the BJP partners began a vicious campaign against the Janata Dal (Secular), particularly targeting the Chief Minister and his family. Even BJP’s MLCs and MLAs started indulging in a vituperative smear campaign, unparalleled in the history of coalition governments anywhere in the world.

Yet, the Chief Minister continued to bear the cross silently suffering the humiliation heaped on him and his family only to avoid burdening the State with another election and to provide all possible opportunities to the coalition partner to mend itself.

Attempts crushed

The Chief Minister also crushed with an iron hand attempts by the BJP’s sister concerns in the Sangh Parivar to whip up communal frenzy in the state by raking up issues like Dattapeetha. Though the coalition was a State-level arrangement, the JD (S) national president himself personally wrote to the BJP top brass drawing their attention to the attempts by the BJP and Sangh Parivar elements to vitiate the communal atmosphere in the State. However, the senior BJP leaders did not even show the basic courtesy to respond to the communication.

Though JD (S) legislators and senior party leaders were exerting pressure on the party’s national leadership to end the coalition with the BJP in view of the malicious campaign including bribery and corruption charges against the Chief Minister and other party leaders and Ministers, Mr. Kumaraswamy adopted a patient approach so as not to be seen as not abiding by his commitment to the agreement arrived at between the two parties.

Defying all norms

However, defying all norms of coalition dharma, a senior BJP leader and Minister in the state government filed a First Information Report against the Chief Minister charging him with murder conspiracy late last month, which was unheard of in the parliamentary system of democracy anywhere in the world. Adding to the insult was the endorsement given to the Minister’s action by the State BJP president. What’s more, even the party’s national leadership, which has been reminding the JD (S) in the most humiliating manner through media during the last 20 months on the transfer of power, did not utter a word of condemnation against the Minister’s action. Apparently, the BJP silence was motivated by extraneous factors and did not betray any effort to save the coalition or have friendly relations with the coalition partner.

It also became clear that the BJP was unnerved by the growing popularity of the Chief Minister due to his pro-poor, pro-minorities and pro-people policies and personal bonding with the people, as was reflected in the outcome of the recent elections to the state’s civic bodies.

In view of the above circumstances including attempts by the BJP to defame and discredit the Chief Minister, his family, the party’s national president, and other senior leaders as also attempts by Sangh Parivar outfits to turn Karnataka into a Hindutva laboratory on the lines of Gujarat, the Political Affairs committee of the party, keeping in mind the overwhelming sentiments of the state legislators and party workers and functionaries right from the grass root level, is constrained to recommend to the state party not to transfer power to the BJP to maintain peace and communal harmony in the state of Karnataka.

The PAC has reviewed the political situation in the state and gone through the resolution of the legislative party and state executive not to hand over power to the BJP and explain to the people of the state the circumstances under which this painful yet extremely necessary step had to be taken, and to make the people of the state the final arbiters.

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