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H. D. Deve Gowda

11th Prime Minister of India

H. D. Deve Gowda born Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda (May 18, 1933) was the twelfth Prime Minister of India (1996–1997) and the 14th Chief minister of the state of Karnataka (1994–1996). He is an influential leader of the Vokkaliga community and is popularly known as Mannina maga (Son of the soil) for espousing the cause of the farmers.

H. D. Deve Gowda inaugurating a regional convention

Quotes

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  • I will not eat food from restaurants while campaigning. My party workers know my diet and keep ragi mudde (ragi balls and sambar ready before I reach the villages.
    • In: Shyam Sundar Vattam "Gowda Lives on Ragi Mudde on the Campaign Trail".
  • I may be a sleeping politician. But one should know that a sleeping politician is always awake about national politics. I am not like politicians who sleep on national issues though they may be awake physically,"
  • I don't want to make general remarks. I don't want to make sweeping remarks about the media. In my country the media can play its own role. Freedom of press is there. It is for them to take their own views about the leaders.
  • Nobody can finish off anyone else. No political party can finish off another political party. Neither will we finish off anyone nor will the others finish us off. It is all a wrong notion. In fighting for the better prospects of his party, nobody can find fault with him.
    • In: R R Nair "The Rediff Election Interview/H D Deve Gowda"
  • I have seen several ups and downs in my life. I have seen several detractors in my life. Why should I bother about that? In my 40 years in politics I have passed through such events and I don't want to take these things seriously. I will take things philosophically.
    • In: R R Nair "The Rediff Election Interview/H D Deve Gowda"
  • Hegde, as a Brahmin was not prepared to see a dark-skinned farmer of a low caste become the Prime Minister of India
    • In: Gopal K. Kadekodi, et al., "Development in Karnataka: Challenges of Governance, Equity, and Empowerment".
    • His retort to Hegde’s remark that he was not fit to become Prime Minister and that he did not know the Map of India.
  • I went there and of course we invited the investors to come to India. So this is one of the companies to come to India {Ashok Kheny). He only signed Kheny MOU as a witness with bureaucrats to work out the details.
    • In: The Newsmakers, Random House India, 22 April 2014, p. 94
    • In the early nineties, he, who likes being called mannina maga (son of the soil), was persuaded by the then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao to attend the World Economic Forum, in Devos. According to Deve Gowda Rao wanted a non-Congress non-BJP chief minister to attend as a representative to encourage foreign investment. In 1996, a year after the MOU was signed, he became the PM of India for 10 months, heading a coalition of regional parties.

About H. D. Deve Gowda

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  • His ascension to the post of Prime Minister was a bit of a surprise, since he was not a frontrunner and was neither from the Congress nor the BJP, predictably the two largest winners. However, since an alliance between them was out of the question, it was left to the Congress to throw its weight behind a number of regional parties and take control. The Janata Dal and Gowda emerged the biggest winners.
  • If the Prime Minister is not shown napping at official functions by an irreverent media, he is portrayed as a perennial latecomer who keeps people waiting interminably for him to arrive at his appointments.
    • India Today in: "Sleeping Gowda' remains unruffled by critics"
  • In 1991, Gowda stood for the Lok Sabha election as a SJP candidate and won with a narrow margin. It was his three-year stint in parliament that saw him broaden his vision and shed his parochial concerns.He patched with Hegde and returned to head the JD in 1993. His organizational skills were instrumental in helping the JD come back to power in Karnataka. Now as the prime minister, Deve Gowda;s defining movement has truly arrived. His flexibility will help bind desperate political groups together
  • The UF Government headed by Mr Deve Gowda would, in effect, be a national government in as much as, it would have representation from a wide cross section of the people of the country
    • M. G. Chitkara, Baṃśī Rāma Śarmā in: "Indian Republic: Issues and Perspective", p. 239
  • Marx and market does not mix. By the time this realization dawns, the United FrontGovernment (UF) [headed by Deve Gowda] would have gone...the new finance minister, who was an architect of “pro-rich policy” of the erstwhile congress government, had been entrusted with the task of implementing the so-called common programme of the UF. The people are not amused by the spectacle of a Prime Minister pledging his commitment to the previous government’s policies even as he remains a hostage to the support of dogmatic communists for his survival.
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