Deve Gowda condemns 'cowardly attacks' on CPI-M

New Delhi, Mar 10 (UNI) Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Deve Gowda today termed the attacks by the RSS and BJP workers on the CPI(M) headquarters here and the residence of CPI(M) state secretary in Bangalore as 'cowardly attacks'.

In a statement, Mr Gowda said the attacks by the 'lumpen elements' had exposed the people of India to the 'fascist mindset' of the saffron party, who had never changed its spots since its anti-social attacks on Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 and in Gujarat a decade later.

''The saffron activists are so intollerant that they did not spare the life of their own Professor Sabharwal in Ujjain and attacked the paintings of eminent painter M F Hussain and Christian minorities in Gujarat and Kandhamal in Orissa while BJP's key ally in Maharashtra was attacking the poor people of north India,'' Mr Gowda asserted.

He said the attacks were an eye opener for people who were sought to be deluded by Sangh Pariwar's misguiding slogans like 'good governance, and pseudo-secularism. The BJP and its cohorts must realise that the fascist antics will not be accepted in a democratic society. People of Karnataka too were determined not to allow the state to be converted into a 'Hindutva laboratory', he added.

He said that his party appealed to all secular minded and democratic forces to sink their differences and join ranks in the war against divisive, communal and undemocratic forces.

The JD(S) was determined to expose and oppose these forces with all its strength in its command, Mr Gowda added.

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