Hardanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda faces a piquant dilemma. For the past four years, he has confined himself to Karnataka politics — extensively touring the state, wooing rival Janata factions, and retaining his stature as the tallest figure in state politics. Yet, he cannot take Congress chief minister S.M.Krishna head-on. “I have been PM of India, sister. How can I become CM of Karnataka?” he asks, a trifle wistfully.In an age where every two-bit politician flaunts his wealth and power on Page 3 and beyond, there is something almost endearing about the “humble farmer” who ruled India for close to a year.His modest bedroom-cum office in his daughter’s middle-class home is a picture of humdrum clutter. Newspapers lie heaped on plastic chairs, crumpled clothes cover the bed, ugly steel cupboards take up much of the wall space, and a dusty panel of sandalwood Ganeshas adorn the untidy study table.His sons, the Bangalore grapevine insists, have made pots of money but their father has little to show for it. “I had a house — a brick and mortar one, not Italian marble — but I gave it to my four sons,” says the ex-PM, proud that despite having occupied the top “gaddi” for “10 months and 21 days”, he came out “without a single scam.” Neither did he accept any government post after leaving office. “I am not anxious to get any political mileage for myself but I want my party to bail out the farmers of this country, the working classes, the minorities who have been so shabbily treated ,” says Deve Gowda, a fire suddenly lighting up his soporific eyes.He admits he can do little at the national level. “My party had only two MPs in Lok Sabha. Everytime I rose to speak, the Speaker would say “you have only two minutes”. What can you say in two minutes?” In the outgoing Karnataka assembly too, the Janata Dal (Secular) had a handful of MLAs who made little impact.“But outside the assembly, it is my party which has been fighting both the Congress and the BJP,” says Deve Gowda, and rails against the Krishna government. “I have seen 13 CMs but not seen a worse administration,” he says, and talks of the land scams and demolitions, the anti-farmer and anti-working class policies of the Krishna regime.“The BJP is the main opposition in the assembly but it did nothing to expose the Congress government’s misdeeds just as the Congress in Parliament failed to expose the Vajpayee government’s misdeeds.”And since the principal opposition has failed, “a former prime minister has to behave like a ordinary citizen to expose the government.” He has only one mission now: defeat Congress in Karnataka and fight the BJP nationally. At a time when individuals are joining the BJP in droves, Deve Gowda is clear about one thing — he will back a secular government in Delhi.Although the Janata Dal(S) has more rural support than the BJP, isn’t it confined only to certain regions of Karnataka? He replies with a question. “Do you think I have been sleeping for the past four-and- a- half years just as — according to you people — I was a sleeping Prime Minister?”And then answers:”The sleeping Prime Minister was always awake about national issues, and on state issues too I have not been sleeping.’’With elections approaching, Deve Gowda has drawn up a gruelling campaign schedule for himself and hopes to channelise the undercurrent of rural discontent into a vote for JD(S). “Come back after the results are announced, sister, come as my government guest,” he says, confident of converting a weak undercurrent into a strong anti-incumbency wave.
