BENGALURU: In 1996, when the then Karnataka chief minister HD Deve Gowda was elevated as country’s Prime Minister, everyone was surprised. But what many do not know was his reluctance to take up the top post, as he wanted to continue in Karnataka politics and further his career.
In his soon-to-be-released biography, Furrows In A Field: The Unexplored Life of HD Deve Gowda by senior journalist Sugata Srinivasaraju and published by Penguin Random House India, Gowda is quoted as requesting the then West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu: “Sir, I have been the Chief Minister for less than two years. My career will end abruptly. The Congress party will not let us run the government for long. I want to be like you. I want to rule Karnataka for many years.”
It was a long struggle for Gowda to reach the chief minister’s position in 1994 and he was at the peak of his political career in 1996 when the Prime Minister’s post came knocking. His party, the Janata Dal, was in a formidable position, having won 16 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, propelling him to the national stage after Atal Behari Vajpayee resigned as Prime Minister.
Gowda was shocked when United Front leaders proposed his name to the post. Given his political acumen, Gowda was sceptical of Congress continuing its support to the coalition government for long. His hunch proved right.
‘Basu’s decision to put Gowda in PM’s chair’
Congress did withdraw support 11 months later, cutting short Gowda’s run as Prime Minister. The book captures Gowda’s thinking before he accepted the PM’s post. “Don’t we all know what Congress did to Charan Singh, VP Singh and Chandrashekar? Will they spare me? Please, change your mind. I also have no felicity in Hindi and have not travelled the length and breadth of this country. You are our elder, I beg you,” Gowda is said to have appealed to Basu.
“When I saw he was unwilling to listen, I touched his feet and requested him to accept my argument,” Gowda is quoted as saying in the book. So much so, Basu told him, “Mr Gowda, do I go out and tell the people of India that we have no secular alternative to Vajpayee? Can we put out an advertisement in the newspaper for a secular Prime Minister?”
Author Srinivasaraju, who has been tracking political developments in the country for decades, told The New Indian Express that it was the conscious decision of Basu and then General Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Harkishan Singh Surjit to put Gowda in the PM’s chair, and it was their acknowledgement of Gowda’s administrative capabilities.
He travelled in an open jeep in J&K
The book highlights Gowda’s desire and intent to resolve India-Pakistan issues and how he had established a diplomatic back channel with then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif through Dr LH Hiranandani, an ENT Surgeon from Mumbai who had treated Gowda and was a friend of Sharif ’s father.
During his second visit to Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 1996, Gowda wanted to go in an open-top jeep from the Rajouri airport to the town, but Army Commander Lt Gen Dhillon was concerned. He told Gowda, “If I do something like this, the country will hang me, sir.” Gowda replied, “Nothing will happen, don’t worry. You drive and I’ll sit next to you. Assume somebody lobs a grenade; both of us will die. Where is the question of you being hanged?”
Lt Gen Dhillon, during his interview with the author on December 4, 2019, said he was surprised by Gowda’s request for an openjeep ride.
“Prime Ministers don’t do this. They want to be protected all the time. Vehicles are flown in for them. But Gowda saab always moved around with minimal protection. He was a brave chap. The Valley would have changed if he had been around longer.”
The book highlights how he intervened in the budget presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, his letters to Vajpayee expressing strong views on violence in Gujarat in 2002, secret files about prominent political personalities that were kept by PV Narasimha Rao and passed on to Gowda’s PMO and his equation with senior Congress leaders as well as with current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.