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Jaipal Reddy risks reputation at altar of ideology

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Sudini Jaipal Reddy, Union information and broadcasting minister in the H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral ministries, today made an impassioned appeal to all those ranged against communalism to join the Congress.

Addressing a crowded press conference at his 14 Akbar Road residence today, Reddy announced his resignation from the primary membership of the Janata Dal (Secular).

"I have sent my resignation to Deve Gowda and told him of my intention to join the Congress party. I have offered to rejoin the Congress which I had quit in 1975 in the wake of imposition of internal emergency by Indira Gandhi. It is for the Congress president to admit me into the party and announce it formally," said the man who once was spokesman for the United Front.

Asked what forced him to join the Congress, Reddy said he had been torn between his sense of personal pride and his sense of ideological duty for some time. "After a long inner struggle, I have decided to place duty above pride. I have dared to stake my reputation at the altar of ideology," he explained.

He admitted that there is no possibility of the third force coming into power in the near future. "The need of the hour is to meet the challenge of the growing menace of the Bharatiya Janata Party's communalism. You should not suffer from intellectual constipation and let your ego get the better of your sense of duty towards the nation.

"With the weakening of the Janata tradition the Indian polity has got polarised. The Congress has emerged as the secular spearhead in today's context. All other secular forces will have to join hands with the Congress party either before the general election or after," Reddy said.

Reddy, who had been in the forefront of the campaign against the Congress on the Bofors issue, said he still believes the guilty should be punished. Asked if he still thought the finger of suspicion points to 10 Janpath, Reddy said it is for the BJP government to make a statement on this crucial aspect. "This is a ghost of the past which needs to be laid to rest once and for all," he asserted.

Asked why he did not join the Telugu Desam Party, Reddy said he had received several offers from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is a personal friend. "There is nothing wrong in joining the TDP. But I had laid down one condition: that if I join the party it would have nothing to do with the BJP. The TDP on its own is not communal, but by joining hands with the BJP it has lost its secular credentials. Naidu must shake off the BJP and rejoin the secular parties," Reddy explained.

Earlier Report: Jaipal Reddy to quit JD and join Congress

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