OLD MEMORY
HD Deve Gowda: India’s first Accidental Prime Minister; 25 Years Ago Currently, the 88-year-old leader is a member of Rajya Sabha and is serving as the president of Janata Dal (Secular). By Ravi Kant
L
ate 90’s; Congress is weak; too many political parties spewing here and there; coalitions and contradictions and a hung Parliament in the scenario. Exactly 25 years ago, HD Deve Gowda was at the centre of one of the surprising turn of events in the country's political history that catapulted him onto the national stage and securing the Prime Minister's post without seriously aspiring for it. At times one has to give credit to destiny too. With barely 18 months as the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Gowda, who has had no big role in national politics till then, assumed charge as the 11thPrime Minister on June 1,1996, after emerging as the leader of the 13-party United Front, which was supported by the Congress from outside. Congress losing decisively in the 1996 Lok Sabha election. All credit
to the speedy Bhartiya Janata Party riding on the popular ‘Ram Rath.’ The fall of the 13-day government led by BJP's Atal Bihari Vajpayee, preceded Deve Gowda’s entry into the national political scene. Popularly known as "Mannina Maga" (son of the soil), Gowda is the only Kannadiga and second south Indian after P V Narasimha Rao to have occupied the top post. Gowda, who has called himself an "Accidental Prime Minister" on several occasions in the past, has stated that it was leftist stalwart Jyoti Basu's chance to become PM that surprisingly landed in his lap, and it was the former West Bengal Chief Minister himself who proposed his name for the top post. Gowda was Prime Minister for less than a year (324 days) until April 21, 1997, as had to demit office, with Congress withdrawing support. It is
22 JUNE-2021 NATIONAL POLITICAL MIRROR
said that Gowda's differences with Sitaram Kesri, who became Congress president after Narasimha Rao, cost him the post, following which Inder Kumar Gujral was chosen as leader of the United Front and he became the Prime Minister. Currently, the 88-year-old leader is a member of Rajya Sabha and is serving as the president of Janata Dal (Secular). C M Ibrahim, who was Minister of Information and Broadcasting in Gowda's cabinet has termed the tenure under the former Prime Minister as the "golden era of the country", and for the first time a "man from the soil, a humble farmer", had risen to that level. Ibrahim may have forgotten the history of Lal Bahadur Shastri. Recalling the "corruption-free" administration, he said, Gowda's ‘dress, character and history’ was all ‘white’,
