Minister for Higher Education G.T. Deve Gowda showering praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi may not be new. But he has aroused curiosity by continuing to defend the Bharatiya Janata Party’s central leadership even when the coalition partner Congress has mounted an offensive against the saffron party for trying to destabilise the Kumaraswamy government.
For the third successive day on Wednesday, Mr. Gowda reiterated that the BJP’s central leadership was not behind the resignation of the two Congress MLAs.
Mr. Gowda, who had already made it clear on Tuesday that Mr. Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were not encouraging the resignation of coalition MLAs, said on Wednesday that the Kumaraswamy-led government will remain in power in Karnataka for the next four years, while Mr. Modi will be in the saddle in New Delhi for five years.
“When Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister, Ramakrishna Hegde was the Chief Minister of Karnataka. Similarly, NTR was in power in Andhra Pradesh and MGR in Tamil Nadu,” Mr. Gowda said.
He claimed that Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah were busy thinking about larger issues such as the Kashmir tangle and India’s relationship with the U.S. and China. “They have promised to give a pro-farmer budget and are fully involved in the budget session,” he said.
When his attention was drawn to Congress leaders blaming the BJP leadership for the resignation of the MLAs, Mr. Gowda said the BJP earlier tried to dislodge the coalition government in the State. “But, not after Mr. Modi returned to power,” he said.
Siddaramaiah counters
When Mr. Gowda’s defence of the BJP’s central leadership was brought to the notice of former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who was in Mysuru to hold a meeting with party leaders from Varuna Assembly constituency, he said the JD(S) leader may have received a different kind of information.
