Date:09/01/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/09/stories/2006010917810500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Meeting Vajpayee in Delhi

A. Jayaram

It was Vajpayee's namesake, an ophthalmologist, who told Deve Gowda about the former Prime Minister not keeping well

Bangalore: It has turned out that the "voyage" of the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda to New Delhi is to meet two Vajpayees and not the former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee alone, which has in the last few days been speculated upon, denied and challenged.

The meeting between the two former Prime Ministers did take place in New Delhi on Sunday evening.

The reference to "voyage" is because of the sobriquet "Voyagepayee" earned by Mr. Vajpayee from the irrepressible Raj Narain, when he was the External Affairs Minister in the erstwhile Janata government at the Centre led by Morarji Desai. Mr. Narain was the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare at that time and it was he who replaced the words family planning with family welfare.

He used to take copious digs at Mr. Vajpayee for his frequent foreign jaunts as Foreign Minister.

It was Mr. Deve Gowda who called on Mr. Vajpayee. However, it was not to discuss alliances between the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Bharatiya Janata Party in case the coalition Government in the State with the Congress collapses owing to the weight of its contradictions.

According to Janata Dal (S) sources here, Mr. Deve Gowda, to spike speculations, had informed television channels and some newspapers in the capital that he will be calling on Mr. Vajpayee this evening.

`First and last'

Mr. Deve Gowda is reported to have told the Delhi press, of which he has much to complain, that the coalition with the Congress at the State level will be the "first and the last one " for his party in Karnataka. His party will have none of it in future. About alliances in the zilla and taluk panchayats, Mr. Deve Gowda is reported to have said that the Janata Dal (S) will sit in the Opposition in districts and taluks where the Congress enters into an alliance with the All India Progressive Janata Dal led by former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. However, in panchayats in which the Congress is forced to depend on the Janata Dal (S), his party will support the Congress from outside and not join hands with it to run the institutions. Mr. Deve Gowda's statement should put at rest the talk that the Janata Dal (S) will walk out of the coalition if the Congress joins hands with the AIPJD in districts and taluks.

As regards the two Vajpayees, Janata Dal (S) spokesman and General Secretary Y.S.V. Datta said the main purpose of Mr. Deve Gowda's trip to Delhi was for an eye check up with an ophthalmologist Vajpayee. However his personal staff in Delhi bungled and instead of seeking an appointment with the ophthalmologist, contacted their counterparts attached to the former Prime Minister Mr. Vajpyaee. When he went for the eye check up, he was informed that the former Prime Minister is not well. Incidentally, the two Vajpayees are relatives. That was how Mr. Deve Gowda told his personal staff in Delhi to fix an appointment with the former Prime Minister and met him on Sunday evening.

Earlier in the day, State BJP President Jagadish Shettar had told a television channel that Mr. Deve Gowda is supplicating for an appointment with Mr. A.B. Vajpayee for political purposes. He has "proof" of the request. Mr. Datta had reacted to Mr. Shettar's claim and said there is nothing wrong if two former Prime Ministers meet.