An invitation or lack thereof to an important public event has snowballed into a political controversy in Karnataka. The Janata Dal Secular (JD(S)) accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of not inviting veteran leader and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda to the recent inauguration of the Kempegowda statue at the Bengaluru airport. Terming it an insult to Deve Gowda, the JD(S) claimed that the government had turned the inauguration into a party event.
The 108-foot-tall statue was unveiled on Friday, November 11 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Kempegowda, a feudatory ruler under the erstwhile Vijayanagara empire, founded Bengaluru in 1537. He is revered, especially by the Vokkaliga community that is dominant in Old Mysuru and other parts of southern Karnataka.
Reacting to the JD(S) allegation, the BJP hit back by releasing the invitation letters written by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to various dignitaries, including Deve Gowda. The party, seemingly worried about polarising Vokkaligas, accused the JD(S) of indulging in false propaganda.
Speaking on the controversy, JD(S) leader and former CM HD Kumaraswamy said that his father and former PM Deve Gowda got a call from CM Bommai on Thursday inviting him to the event. Besides, a letter was handed over by someone to the police personnel stationed at Deve Gowda’s residence. “'The letter from the BJP starts with the word Respected… it has Deve Gowda’s name somewhere at the end of the letter; the name seems to have been added later,'' Kumaraswamy alleged.
However, Minister Dr Ashwath Narayan, who was overseeing the statue project and unveiling programme as he is the vice-chairman of the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Heritage Area Development Authority, said Bommai himself had invited Deve Gowda, whose name also appears on the inaugural plaque. “Deve Gowda was invited but did not come. Our government and people have respect for Deve Gowda, there is no question of disrespecting him,” he said, adding that all former chief ministers, including Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy, were invited by Bommai.
Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, too, said that CM Bommai had told him that he had personally invited the former PM and would enquire into why he did not come. “'Saying he (Deve Gowda) was not invited is not right,” he said, adding that Kumaraswamy and other JD(S) leaders were unable to digest BJP’s achievement in installing the Kempegowda statue.
Noting that not inviting a farmer-leader who was the first person from Karnataka to become the PM was an insult to the state, JD(S) state president CM Ibrahim said leaders of other parties, including former CM and Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah, should have been invited.
Siddaramaiah said he received a call from Bommai on Thursday inviting him to the event. He said, “'I told the Chief Minister that the invitation doesn’t have my name. Also that I have a meeting, so I can’t come.'' While stating that he and his party welcomed the installation of the statue, he, however, said that it was the earlier Congress government that had initially planned the statue and named the airport after Kempegowda.
State Congress president DK Shivakumar alleged that the BJP government was doing everything as per its agenda of vote bank politics and promoting the party using government money. “The ruling BJP’s conduct, whether they gave respect to Deve Gowda or not, made former CM SM Krishna sit in the back row (during the event), I leave it to them,” he said, as he once again questioned why government funds were used for installing the statue. He said Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), which runs the airport, should have taken up the work on the statue and all related tasks.
The developments, ahead of the Assembly polls next year, point to a contest between the political parties to claim the legacy of Kempegowda in an attempt to garner electoral support from the politically dominant Vokkaliga community.
With PTI inputs