The Other Side of Deve Gowda

Once again the national media is after one its favourite whipping boys: Hardanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda. When he was named for Prime Ministership, he was the proverbial dark horse; once he was at the helm of affairs, the urban centric media went out of its way with apparent sadistic pleasure to show a sleeping Gowda. Recently, noted columnist Khushwant Singh described him as a ‘donkey’ or ‘ass’ among Prime Ministers India has had. Ironically, this child of fate, a donkey and sleeping politician is also often projected by the same media as scheming, calculating, shrewd old fox. Certainly, he can’t be both.

One cannot recall in post-independent India a politician who rose to become the Prime Minister and even 10 years later remains as active, if not more. He heads a political party which has considerable influence in Karnataka and is a ruling coalition partner in Kerala. He continues to be elected again and again and often with the highest margin to the Lok Sabha. He is at the forefront of popular agrarian agitations in the state and regularly attends and participates actively not only in Parliament but also in the different committees to which he has been nominated.

At 76, the Civil Engineer turned politician remains as active notwithstanding his diabetes and other health ailments. He is a vegetarian, teetotaler and a total family man. Yet, often he is isolated and targeted by what he himself called the ‘elitist Delhi media’, which only highlighted his rustic ways and background. Except allegations of general nature leveled against all politicians, the fact remains that there has not been a single specific charge of graft against him or the United Front Government that he headed at the Centre, unlike many who are eulogized as messiahs of poor and backwards. Except for the recent unfortunate swear word incident, which is undoubtedly indefensible, Gowda has never been accused of instigating violence or turning a blind eye to pogroms unlike some who are being hailed now as models of governance.

It is indeed sad that a nation has chosen to paint entirely in black an individual who climbed up the ladder the hard way and ignore whatever little contribution he made during his brief 10 month tenure. Even as small states have become a craze in the country now, it was Deve Gowda who as Prime Minister announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort plans to create the state of Uttarakhand.


Television journalist Rajdeep Sardesai had once commented, “That Gowda became PM may rankle those who feel that his ascent to the post devalued the august institution. His choice was pure luck, plucked out of obscurity to the highest post only because the other contenders eliminated each other. And yet, Deve Gowda will go down in history as one of the only two Indian Prime Ministers (Charan Singh being the other) with well-defined rural roots, a consciously non-elite leader, and in his case, the first to perhaps have no connection with the Delhi durbar. In a sense, he was the first genuine regional satrap to become PM, a politian who derived his sense of power and importance, not from his proximity to the national leadership of his party but from his control over a particular state.”



Though 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament remains a distant dream till date, it was the Deve Gowda Government which introduced the Constitution Amendment Bill to reserve 30 per cent seats in the Lok Sabha for women, as also the Lok Pal Bill to enquire into charges of corruption against public functionaries including the Chief Minister.

It was Gowda who set the peace process in strife-torn Kashmir rolling not only by visiting the state, the first by a Prime Minister in seven years, but also putting in place a popularly elected Government led by Farooq Abdullah after a lapse of nearly eight years and offering an economic package that included construction of 290 km railway line from Udhampur to Baramulla, linking the valley with the rest of India for the first time and completion of the long-pending Dulhasti and Uri Hydro electric projects.

In October 1996, Deve Gowda became the first Prime Minister to visit all the seven states of the North-East and announced s Rs 65,000 crore economic package asserting that “India as a whole cannot progress unless every state including the seven states of the North-Eastern region keep in step with the rest of the country.” He also extended an unconditional invitation to all insurgent groups to meet him saying, “I genuinely wish to understand their points of view and what exactly is troubling them”.

On the External Affairs front, Gowda peacefully resolved the long-pending Ganga water sharing agreement with Bangaldesh and the Mahakali Treaty with Nepal. He played a key role in resumption of stalled talks between India and Pakistan. Gowda set aside protocol and received Chinese President Jiang Zemin and the two sides agreed for Confidence Building Measures along the Line of Actual Control.

Gowda gave a free hand to his Foreign Minister I K Gujral to pursue his ‘Gujral Doctrine’ and to his Finance Minister P Chidambaram to implement his liberalization programes. It was Gowda’s determination to tap the “vast unaccounted money” for development purposes that led to the launching of the revolutionary Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS). The Mumbai sea link project and Delhi’s Metro too got their approval during his tenure.

Former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramaniam has narrated the following anecdote in his classic ‘Journey Through Babudom and Netaland: Governance in India’

“I called on Deve Gowda on the day I took over charge as Cabinet Secretary. He was busy that day, and asked me to see him the following evening at his residence, where he spent half an hour alone with me, discussing the things he wanted to accomplish as asking me to help him execute his plans. What he then said impressed me greatly and I am quoting as well as I can remember. "I have spent many years in state politics, seen a lot of things. I have enough money for my lifetime. God has given me the opportunity, unexpectedly, to serve the country as the prime minister. I will be completely honest, straightforward and will keep all politics out when national interest is involved. I want you and Satish Chandran to help me with my plans. My sons and my relatives will want to exploit my present position to their pecuniary advantage. They will use their proximity to me, through open and subtle ways, to influence you, and to put pressure on you. I want you to be completely fair and impartial and not oblige them. Sometimes, they may speak to you in my presence, giving the impression of my full agreement. I may not at that time be in a position to contradict them, because of my close relationship. Even then you should ignore them totally. If i need anything from you, i will ask you privately - but that will be very rare." Deve Gowda was true to his words. He never asked me to go out of the way in any matter, except on one trivial instance, when he explained the reason why he wanted me to stretch a point.”

We are taught to give even the devil its due. Certainly, Deve Gowda deserves better.