Bengaluru : Former Prime Minister and JD(S) President H D Deve Gowda on Friday said the Narendra Modi wave is on the wane following BJP’s defeat in Delhi and Bihar Assembly polls, besides Gujarat local body polls and claimed the coalition era would return. “Yes it (the Modi wave) is coming down…,” Gowda said after JD(S) National Executive meeting here.
Gowda said the debate in and outside Parliament over “rising intolerance”, farmers’ suicides and killing of three rationalists had “culminated into spoiling” the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi had promised to root out corruption but “failed,” which the alert Indian electorate understands, he said. “The Indian electorate is very vigilant. You cannot take their vigilance for granted. We politicians should be very alert and the Prime Minister had made several promises before the Lok Sabha elections – the foremost being rooting out corruption, which he has not done as yet,” he said. In reality, there was no Modi wave, and it was created by the media because the mood was for a change.
The country wanted riddance from “corrupt” rule of UPA government for a decade, Gowda claimed. “There was no Modi wave. It was created by the media. I want to make it clear. There is no charge (against the media). The media wanted change. The mood in the nation was for a change because of the corruption charges against UPA.
Taking this into account, corporate houses cooperated,” he said.
Modi took advantage of the prevailing mood against the UPA government to win Lok Sabha elections and at the same time secular parties also failed to come together on the same platform, Deve Gowda said.
Replying to a query, Gowda said “Bihar poll results have given country a new direction to move forward to put an end to the issue of intolerance.”
Asked whether the Bihar poll results will result in the return of coalition era, Gowda said “exactly. Why? See, he (Modi) made tall claims about eradicating corruption. What happened in Madhya Pradesh? What happened in Rajasthan? People are very alert,” he said. Gowda also said he hoped regional parties in various states and Left front outfits and Congress will ultimately come together.
Gowda claimed that for the first time, RSS was monitoring government’s performance. “For the first time in the country, RSS is monitoring the performance of the government. We have never seen. They claim RSS is a cultural organisation. They are directly involved,” the former PM said. PTI
