Gowda threatens to end alliance with BJP in Karnataka over emotive issues

JD (S) supremo and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has threatened to end its coalition with the BJP in Karnataka if the saffron party deviates from the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) and continues to rake up emotive issues.

Apparently perturbed over the recent utterances of BJP Ministers and other leaders over issues like taking out a Shobha Yatra at the disputed Bababudangiri shrine and demand for removal of references to warrior king Tipu Sultan from the history books, Gowda said the JD (S) “will not take it lying down anymore”.

“These developments were certainly a threat to the survival of the coalition Government”, Gowda said. The former Prime Minister also said he would not allow the secular credentials of JD (S) to come under a cloud anymore. “Our commitment to secularism will not be compromised”, Gowda said.

He said a section of the BJP had clearly strayed from the CMP over the last three months. “A section of the BJP leaders are riding on the shoulders of the Chief Minister”, he said.

He hoped that the BJP’s national leadership will take note of the “deviation” and try to advice the party’s Karnataka unit leaders to stick to the sacred document that CMP was. “It is the CMP that holds the government together”, Gowda warned.

Gowda said he would not like to elaborate on the matter much as Karnataka’s maiden Legislature Session at Belgaum was round the corner. “But, I hope I have conveyed enough”, the JD (S) chief said.

Gowda’s threat to end the coalition comes at a time when there have been widespread protests against Higher Education Minister D H Shankarmurthy’s remarks that the legendary ruler of Mysore Tipu Sultan was hostile to Kannada and hence deserves no place in the history books.

The JD (S) chief offered his apologies for the “meaningless” comments made by the Higher Education Minister against Tipu Sultan. “I am apologizing for such meaningless comments that have hurt the feelings and sentiments of the people. No attempt should be made to distort history. We condemn any voice of dissonance against the great warrior king that Tipu Sultan was”, Gowda said.

Reprimanding Shankarmurthy, who belongs to the BJP, for the controversial comments, Gowda said it was improper on the part of the Higher Education Minister to have painted such a great patriot as anti-Kannada. “People across the country and the world look at Tipu Sultan as a great soldier and not as a Hindu or a Muslim. Only those with a narrow outlook will speak in such terms”, Gowda said.

Soon after Gowda’s reprimand, a chastened Shankarmurthy sought to play down his controversial remarks. “I am not against any religion. The statement was made as a passing reference. If some people think I have hurt their feelings, I am sorry for it”, he said.

Even the BJP’s state unit has begun distancing itself from the controversy over Tipu Sultan. BJP’s Karnataka unit President D V Sadananda Gowda said what Shankarmurthy had said about Tipu Sultan was his personal view. “It is not the BJP’s view. BJP does not support his views”, Sadananda Gowda said.

Just before the controversy over Tipu Sultan broke out, the JD (S) and BJP were gripped by differences over Shobha Yatra as part of the Datta Jayanthi celebrations atop the disputed hill shrine of Bababudangiri in Chikmagalur in Karnataka.

Though the Home Minister M P Prakash, who belongs to the JD (S), had banned the Shobha Yatra, the BJP leaders including Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa claimed that the final word on the Shobha Yatra will be taken by the co-ordination committee of the coalition partners.