MUMBAI: Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s meeting with Shiv Sena supremo, BAL Thackeray, has sparked off a controversy with senior leaders of the Janata Dal and United Front allies in Maharashtra taking strong exception to it. A delegation of progressive Democratic Front prizing the JD, CPL, CPIM “Kamgar Agadi, Republican Party of India, Peasants and Workers Party and others called on the Prime Minister at the Raj Bhavan last week to express displeasure over the meeting which took place last week at superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s house. The prime minister, however, sought to know “what is wrong with it.” Speaking to journalists outside JD headquarters Gowdasaid“do you know the Hindu culture? His (Thackeray) wife has expired, his son died and he himself underwent a bypass surgery and in such circumstances you meet the person (to console him).” The delegation, which comprised Mrs. Gore, JD trade union leader, Dr. Datta Samant, Ramdas Athawale, RPI, Hussein Dalwai and Mrs. Ahilya Rangnekar, CPIM, told the prime minister “it would have been proper if you had met at the Raj Bhavan, “But we are very disappointed with your meeting him at some other place soon after your arrival,” they said.
Mrs. Gore told Gowda “your and CM Ibrahim’s meeting with Thackeray has put us in a very awkward position.” Mrs. Gore voiced her reservations again during a meeting of party workers addressed by Gowda. However, Gowda said “I have not much time now, but you come to Delhi, we will talk there in detail.”
Article extracted from this publication >> August 28, 1996
