Draft ready for reforms of parties, polls: Doreswamy

The ‘Janandolana Jatha’ against the State government organised by the Jayaprakash Narayan Vedike concluded in Shimoga, the home district of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, on Monday.

Freedom fighter H S Doreswamy lit the ‘jagriti deevige’ (awareness torch) and handed it over to State JD(S) president H D Kumaraswamy to thunderous applause from thousands of people who had gathered at the Tunga Nagar grounds.

In his speech, Doreswamy said that the Centre for Standards in Public Life had prepared the draft for reforms of political parties and the electoral system.

The draft lays stress on the management and regulation of financial affairs of the political parties.

The draft sheds light on aspects like registration, constitution and the administrative committee of the parties, besides the donations made by companies, trusts and other organisations to the parties. Doreswamy called upon all parties to come forward to help implement the reforms.

Doreswamy called upon former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, who was sitting among the audience, to raise the issue in the Lok Sabha.

He called upon the JD(S) leaders to practise clean politics, so that they can claim the moral high ground to question the wrongs of others. Doreswamy asked the leaders to make efforts to save democracy.

He said corruption and development seemed to be intertwined in the present day context.

“People these days calculate as to how much money had been made by the leaders whenever the leaders speak of development. The people are fed up with such development,” the freedom fighter said.

Doreswamy called for more discussions in various fora with regard to the draft bill on the reforms of political parties and in the electoral system of the country.

Directly questioning the chief minister, he said: “Who gave you the powers to distribute tax payers’ money to mutts? What do you have to say about 71.05 metric tonnes of iron ore exported illegally during your tenure? You have made even the officials corrupt.”

On the letter written to him by Yeddyurappa, Doreswamy said: “If the chief minister had sent word to me, I would have gone myself to meet him. I felt bad when he sought time to meet me.”

In his speech, Kumaraswamy said the JD(S) was ready to help implement electoral reforms.

State party general secretary Madhu Bangarappa and MLC Y S V Datta were present.