BENGALURU: Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal Secular supremo HD Deve Gowda, who appears to be keeping a wary distance from both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, observed that there is a
threat to democracy as the Independence the country had won, is slowly vanishing.
Gowda was speaking at Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan’s 116th birth anniversary at the JDS party office ‘JP Bhavan’ here on Monday. “Mahatma Gandhi got us Independence the first time, and Lok Nayak Japaprakash Narayan the second time, but it has become scarce now,” he stated, drawing a parallel between the current situation in the country and the Emergency imposed by late Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi in 1975.
“I will compare the political situation then with that of now. They (BJP, in particular Prime Minister Narendra Modi) had invited then United States President Donald Trump for an event in Gujarat. I do not belong to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and will not take on the organisation for criticism’s sake, but will tell the truth. It is a fact that some RSS men had surrendered, by tendering letters of apology to the establishment which imposed Emergency,” he revealed.
The JDS supremo attacked the Congress for its power-centric politics, claiming that he has stuck to the ideology of JP, and even named the party’s office after him. He reminisced about JP’s visit to Hassan
back in 1957, to campaign for Y Veerappa.