Nanje Gowda accuses State BJP of "sanctum sanctorum culture”

He said he was being systematically marginalised in the party, and added he had made it clear to party president L K Advani, when joining the party, that he was not prepared to be a doorman in order to get things done. “Nor was he used to circling the pillars of the temple run by a coterie”. He had his own stature, he said.

TheRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), he said, could afford to be a regimental outfit because it was not a political party. But the BJP cannot afford to be one, he added.

He was charged with not doing anything for the party, but this was not true, he said. During the national executive meeting, when the party held a public rally in his constituency Basavangudi, he had been kept out. When he had asked the state leadership earlier, if there was anything he could do for the rally, he had been told he would be sent a special invitation.

All he had to do was to stay in the special gallery the invitation entitled him to occupy a seat in. By doing this, “They have insulted the people of my constituency who voted for me,” he said. That was why he did not attend the national executive meeting he said. He would not pawn his self-respect to remain in the party. “In my constituency, people do not need to identify me as an MLA. They know me as Nanje Gowda” he added.

In the past, the State leadership had got awaywith trying to sideline him because they felt no matter what, he would keep quiet about it. But this time, “I will not keep quiet” he said, and would complain to the party high command.

He was not competing with anyone for any post, he said, in reply to a question. Nor would he resign from the party on grounds of being sidelined. He had confidence in L K Advani and Prime Minister A B Vajpayee’s leadership, he said. Whatever he had said today was the result of his experience with the State leaders and not a reflection of his differences with the party, he added. On whether he would contest again on a BJP ticket, he said if the party gave him a ticket, he would.

Meanwhile, he was opposed to the international airport coming up at Devanahalli, and had conveyed this to Ananth Kumar when he took over as Union Civil Aviation Minister. He felt the proposed township by private entrepreneurs due to come up around the airport would pollute the adjacent Arkavathy river. He, therefore, believed any clearance to theairport project must be preceded by an environmental clearance by the State Pollution Control Board.

Gowda also alleged that there were irregularities in the granting of civil works to private contractors by the Karnataka State Construction Corporation (KSCC), especially with regard to irrigation projects in the Hemavathy Basin.

He charged the KSCC with granting benefits to certain ministers in the J H Patel Cabinet. “Some persons in the government are in the habit of entrusting various civil works to the KSCC, which in turn sub-contracts the jobs to private contractors who are close to certain ministers. As a result, the government has to release more funds to these works than is estimated under the Hemavathy Basin projects,” he said. He demanded that these works be stopped immediately and an inquiry instituted into the awarding of contracts.