‘Modi’s is an extreme form of Congress model’

Coming to the defence of U.R. Ananthamurthy, whose comments on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi sparked a controversy, Dalit writer Devanur Mahadeva has said that “communalism and the Gujarat Chief Minister are like twins”, they can’t live without each other.

Speaking at the 11th anniversary celebrations of the Kannada daily Vartha Bharati , Mr. Mahadeva said the media was unable to understand the threat posed by “undemocratic” people like the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate.

Criticised

Responding to the construct that Mr. Modi is a “development man”, Mr. Mahadeva said that being pro-industry was not the same as being pro-people. Criticising the liberalisation-privatisation-globalisation policies ushered in by the Congress in the early 1990s, he held these responsible for the troubles of millions of poor people.

Mr. Modi’s model of development was an extreme form of the anti-people model developed by the Congress party’s stalwarts such as P.V. Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram. “Modi is nothing but a progeny of Manmohan and Chidambaram,” he said even as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah looked on.

‘Comments distorted’

Earlier Mr. Ananthamurthy blamed the news media for distorting the context of his recent comments on Mr. Modi. While reiterating his stand against Mr. Modi, he said, “Many Kannada publications today are openly right wing. But what is worse is that they are also reactionary and as such enemies of society.”

He pointed out that freedom fighter C. Rajagopalachari was also identified with the right, but he was constantly engaged with building a public discourse for his ideology.