Former Minister A.H. Vishwanath, who was recently nominated to the Legislative Council in the writer’s category, is going ahead with his plans to come out with “Bombay Days”, a book providing an inside view of the political developments that led to the replacement of Congress-JD (S) coalition government with the BJP government in Karnataka last year.
Participating in an interaction programme organised under the joint aegis of Mysuru District Journalists’ Association (MDJA) and Mysuru unit of Kannada Sahitya Parishat here on Tuesday, Mr. Vishwanath said he had written seven books so far and his eighth book will be a factual account of the political developments that took place in the State after 17 MLAs belonging to the ruling coalition revolted against the government.
He referred to the allegations that the MLAs had been paid money to pull down the government. “No, that is not the case. People should know the truth. Media has not analysed it properly, the truth should be documented. I have already given the book the title ‘Bombay Days’”, Mr. Vishwanath said while clarifying that his decision to write a book on the issue was not to “blackmail” the BJP government in the State.
Asked if he would abort his plans to write the book if the government prevails upon him, he said the “government cannot tie his hands and his writing”. In democracy, it was not possible to stop anybody from writing, he said.
With regard to the political developments preceding the fall of the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led government last year, Mr. Vishwanath said the steps taken by the 17 MLAs of the ruling coalition had established a new trend in politics. “We established a new trend of leaders moving away from the ruling party to the Opposition” he said while claiming that Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh and Rajesh Pilot in Rajasthan had followed the same trend.
Mr. Vishwanath said he considered it a “blessing” to be nominated to the Legislative Council in recognition of his literature. During the interaction programme, he recalled the circumstances that led to him writing his first book ‘Halli Hakki Haadu’, an autobiography, and the trouble that accompanied its release in 2006 when references to former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna and yesteryear actress B. Saroja Devi in the book were blown out of context.
While speaking about his experience of 40 years in politics, Mr. Vishwanath recalled his contribution as Minister for Kannada and Culture during the regime of former Chief Minister M. Veerappa Moily and the role he had played in establishing a separate Secretariat for Kannada and Culture, which until then was functioning merely as a Directorate. Kannada and Culture, which was getting annual grants of no more than ₹5 crore, now has a budget of more than ₹480 crore, Mr. Vishwanath said.
Earlier, litterateur C.P. Krishnakumar, also known as CPK in literary circles, acknowledged Mr. Vishwanath as a literary personality in the political field. “If Mr .Vishwanath is not considered as a litterateur, then nobody else is”, he said.
