H D Deve Gowda yesterday reduced Congress President Sitaram Kesari to a laughing stock, poking fun at the old man in a hurry who seemed to think status went with the Prime Ministers chair, not the historic post of Congress party president.
Congress members were left shifting uncomfortably in their seats as Gowda, in his last speech to the Lok Sabha as Prime Minister, used wry humour and barely suppressed disgust to expose the Congress withdrawal of support as stemming from the ambition of an old man who used street language.
He said the United Front has been betrayed on the false plea that it had neglected the Congress and its president. Kesri, however, felt that being the president of a 110-year old party was not enough status, he wanted the chair of the Prime Minister, Gowda said.
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He had invited Kesri for lunch immediately after he was elected Congress president. He had a two-hour meeting with Kesri.
Within four days, Kesri told Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah not to join the United Front as the Congress was going to withdraw support to it.
I have fought 10 elections. He has not fought a single direct election, he said of Kesri. I choose to be in Rajya Sabha this time because I knew that they will withdraw support to the government. In Rajya Sabha I can remain for five years, he said.
He knew all along that Congress will withdraw support. The party had done it in the past. It had used Raj Narain against the Morarji Desai government and withdrew support to Chandra Shekhar government. He had himself offered to resign much earlier.
But his United Front colleagues had prevailed upon him not to take such action and he had bowed to their desire.
Warming up the subject of betrayal, he said the Congress leadership had stabbed former Prime Minister P V Narsimha Rao in the back. He said he had often gone to meet Rao because he had respect for him.
I am not a person to stab him in the back. I am not a person to belittle a leader simply because he has lost CPP leadership. Rao had bailed out this country from economic crisis, he said.
It is a sin if I meet Rao, it is a sin if I meet Sharad Pawar, it is a sin if I go to Chandra Shekars place but it is not a sin when I meet Kesri 12 times. I have respect for everyone. Atalji, did I not go to your house?, he said while discussing the mean mindedness of the Congress president.
And what has Kesri gained with his histrionics? The Times, London has called him an old man in a hurry.