The former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, is a man under extreme “stress,” a fallout of being out of power at the Centre and in Karnataka for some time now, BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy said here on Monday.
He was reacting to Mr. Gowda’s derogatory remarks against Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. He expressed the hope that Mr. Gowda’s son and former Chief Minister Kumaraswamy would look after his “ailing father.”
Mr. Rudy came out with some “facts”: the MoU between the State government and the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) was signed by Mr. Gowda in 1995 when he was Chief Minister; the project framework agreement was signed in 1997 when he was Prime Minister and his political protégé J.H. Patel was Chief Minister; 1,800 acres of land was acquired for the project when Patel was Chief Minister and 2,300 acres when the Congress was ruling and S.M. Krishna was Chief Minister; and a further 204 acres was acquired when Mr. Kumaraswamy was Chief Minister.
Mr. Rudy wondered what was troubling Mr. Gowda now. He had no problem at all with the project when he was Chief Minister and Prime Minister. “His son Kumaraswamy has said his father is under stress. We understand that he is under stress as he is out of power. We are concerned and hope his son will look after his ailing father,” Mr. Rudy said.
He said Mr. Gowda had crossed all limits by using abusive language against the Chief Minister.
Talking about sugar prices, Mr. Rudy said Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was trying to trivialise the issue of rising prices by saying he was not an astrologer, hence could not predict prices. “There are reports that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked his Cabinet colleague Sharad Pawar whether he was able to control prices or not. We do not want to go into internal Cabinet affairs, but we want to know who is responsible for the rising prices. Mr. Pawar should resign if he cannot control the prices,” Mr. Rudy said.
Moreover, with Dr. Singh, an able economist at the helm of affairs, the country expected an answer on why the prices of food articles had risen rapidly and substantially, Mr. Rudy said.
His party colleague Prakash Javadekar wondered if Mr. Pawar was not an astrologer, why had he predicted several times over the last couple of weeks a global surge
