Leaders of erstwhile Janata Dal come together at book release

A release of a book by Vice President Hamid Ansari on the life of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh today saw leaders of erstwhile Janata Dal coming together, ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh polls.
The event, hosted by JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, saw coming together of Rashtriya Lok Dal President Ajit Singh, Janata Dal (Secular) President and former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Dushyant Chautala and Samajwadi Party's Amar Singh.
NCP President Sharad Pawar, Congress' Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, also attended the event.
Uttar Pradesh is going to polls early next year and there is a buzz of alliances in the state. The RLD and JD(U) are already in alliance in the state.

JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP, KC Tyagi, however, refused to give any political overtone to the event and said only those leaders have been invited, who were associated with Charan Singh.
Gowda said Chaudhary Charan Singh's own people were unable to tolerate his popularity, which led to the downfall of the Janata Party government in 1980. Singh held office from July 1979 to January 1980.

"After the formation of Janata Party government, there was a birthday celebration of Janata Party at the boat club. The normal assessment was that 30 lakh people assembled. Farmers not only from Uttar Pradesh, but all over the entry came for the event. Our own people were unable to tolerate it. That was beginning of downfall. The downfall of Janata Party government started," Gowda said.

Sharad Yadav said Charan Singh had an influence over people right up to Odisha and even Nepal and did a lot for "our sick" country and poor people.
Commenting on the Hindi translation of book titled 'And Indian Political Life: Charan Singh and Congress Politics, 1937 to 1961' (Vol 1) by Paul Brass, Vice President Ansari said, researchers should take a que from the author on how to conduct research and how much time is to be spent on it. "It is an object lesson," he said.
He also rued over the wrong translations on Google Translators as he emphasised on having a good translation system in place in Indian academic institutions.

"Research done in any part of the world, in any language ...If any work could be beneficial then that it should be translated immediately.
"Google translates it, but does it wrong. Whenever, I tried Google Translate, I could translate only half of what I wanted. Only experts can do it and we have to encourage this (translation) in our country," Ansari said.