ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Deve Gowda for backing Congress government

Senior Janata Dal leader and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda today said there was nothing wrong in supporting the Congress to form a government at the Centre if the Vajpayee government falls.

Participating in a meet-the-press programme organised by the local unit of the Karnataka Working Journalists Association in Belgaum, he said, "I want the present massacre of Christians, missionaries, and rape of nuns in the name of conversions to be stopped at once."

Refusing to comment about the fresh bout of dissidence in the state unit of the Dal, he, however, said he would definitely speak about these issues at party fora.

He also declined to comment on whether he had with him the resignation letters of the dissident MLAs.

Coming down heavily on the Centre's Exim policy, he said a massive protest rally of farmers would be organised at Bangalore on February 19 to protest against this anti-farmer policy.

Referring to the import of sugar from Pakistan, Gowda said that during his tenure as prime minister, sugar was exported to Pakistan. When the country had a stock of 22 million metric tonnes and consumption was worth just Rs 13.5 million tonnes, why was sugar being imported, he asked.

Tell us what you think of this report