The Hindu : Karnataka News : I did it for the party: Kumaraswamy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

I did it for the party: Kumaraswamy

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: Television viewers had a sense of deja vu on Saturday evening. Two weeks ago, former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in a lengthy interview justified his decision not to transfer power to his coalition partner despite an agreement between the two parties. On Saturday in another such lengthy interview, Mr. Kumaraswamy justified his decision to re-establish ties with the party that he had criticised.

The former Chief Minister had to answer questions on the political volte face of his party from viewers in an interactive programme with the public telecast live by a private news channel.

“Why did you go with the BJP, a day after it has been exposed in Gujarat in a sting operation by Tehelka?” asked a questioner.

“The Congress conducted the sting operation through them (magazine), and it is a ploy of the party just before the elections,” Mr. Kumaraswamy said. “The decision to align with the BJP here was taken to protect my party. I am ready to do anything to protect my party. Unless it is stable and strong, we cannot implement our ideologies or programmes,” he said.

The former Chief Minister was asked by several viewers the reasons to ally with the party he had refused to hand over power to. Mr. Kumaraswamy’s reply to these questions was: “The Congress tried to split his party for the second time and the decision to support the BJP followed this attempt.” Extending support to the BJP was to prevent the JD(S) from splitting.

However, he blamed the BJP leaders for creating the crisis that led to the imposition of President’s rule in the State. “It was the BJP leaders who did not behave in a mature way. They set deadlines for transfer of power instead of a discussion on the issue,” he said. The BJP had reneged on its commitments many times in the past, he said. “The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished after the BJP Chief Minister filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court that the masjid would be protected. Is that not a crime? Similarly, money was collected across the country in the name of Ram Mandir and the temple was not constructed,” he said.

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