Deve Gowda suffers from Alice in Wonderland syndrome

V C Bhaskaran

During the charade which our political bartenders put up last week, a statement of far-reaching consequence made by Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta went unnoticed. He said on authority that Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence had struck deep roots in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and communal situations in both states were pretty dangerous.

Both Kerala and Tamil Nadu are ruled by parties which form the United Front. When Sitaram Kesri pulled the rug from under Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, the apparent reason for his act was that the UF experiment, meant primarily to forestall communal forces, had failed. In other words, the Deve Gowda government had not contained the Bharatiya Janata Party which, in the eye of the Congress and the UF, is 'communal.'

But the Communist home minister's frank admission of the enemy in his own backyard -- Marxist-ruled Kerala and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham-ruled Tamil Nadu -- went unnoticed by these champions of secularism.

Who does not know that the ISI's pernicious designs are motivated solely by Islamic fundamentalism? It is just as well that it was E M S Namboodiripad's Marxist government which made history by carving out the Muslim-dominated Malapuram district. Our political leaders having turned into brokers, the larger interests of the country's unity and integrity have remained mere slogans.

In its 50th year of Independence, India stands exposed as a nation of petty people. After all, the battle in New Delhi was never over principles, but for personal gains. During the past 10 months or so, many among the country's top political leadership have been either in jail or on bail. Our hotchpotch prime minister's main concern has been to silence his Congress opponents on whose support he came to power.

Of course, he hogged maximum publicity with his tours abroad, including one with the whole of his brood, and announcing gift packages for different parts of the country. Being leader of a dozen regional and local parties, Deve Gowda obviously could not think of the country as a whole. He has proved time and again that he is no more than a taluk-level politician, who naturally could not get out of the Alice in Wonderland syndrome. While Alice was a poor innocent country girl, Deve Gowda is at best a rustic.

Deve Gowda's reported bid to ensure even the BJP's support to remain in power knocks the bottom off his 'secular' credentials. It has been power at any cost with the UF. And the height of Deve Gowda's political naivette was to try and implicate Kesri in criminal cases.

Insiders say that Kesri took the extreme step when he got wind of Deve Gowda's plan to arrest him. The arrest was to be effected on April 4. So Kesri took pre-emtive action on March 30 itself, and put Deve Gowda in the dock.

As D-day came closer, it was pathetic to see Deve Gowda declaring that the UF stand during talks with the Congress was that the leadership issue was not negotiable. And all the while Deve Gowda's partners were busy trying to find an alternative for him! So much for the UF's 'principled stand.'

The BJP, which has been blowing hot and cold during the past week and more has not come off with flying colours either. While party supremo Atal Bihari Vajpayee's immediate reaction was that the party was readying for a mid term poll, the national executive said it was keeping all its options open.

The party spokesman did not stress its earlier stand that its first option was to vote the government out.