Releasing Romesh Bhandari's controversial ringside view of UP politics in its worst days, As I Saw It, at India International Centre today, Deve Gowda recalled the circumstances that led him to appoint the writer as the governor in July 1996. He mentioned how the then incumbent, Mohammed Shafi Qureshi, who was holding dual charge of UP along with Bihar, had told him that the state bureaucracy had split into the Mandir, Mandal and Dalit camps. So much so that Qureshi had confided that it was impossible to set the administration right.

Deve Gowda also looked back at how sugar mills were refusing to pay the Rs 960 crore they owed to the farmers of the state. And how the law and order was in a shambles, despite the 15 additional DGPs who once told Deve Gowda that they were helpless in preventing over 150,000 FIRs from lapsing.

To stem this rot, Deve Gowda said, he had sent Bhandari to UP, at nobody's behest, and despite the feedback that his nominee's record in Goa had been controversial. ``I chose him because of his administrative ability, commitment to a certain philosophy and his firmness,'' Deve Gowda said, answering critics who maintain that Bhandari had been imposed by the Congress, then headed by P. V. Narasimha Rao.

All this talk about UP may have shifted the spotlight away from an important chapter in the book that gives Bhandari's defence of his links with arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and discredited godman Chandraswami (including the party on Khashoggi's yacht that Bhandari's son had attended), but Deve Gowda's occasional flashes of oratory made up for it. ``Bhandariji yielded to pressure when he administered the oath to a person against whom a non-bailable warrant had been issued,'' he said, referring to the infamous UP minister, Raghuraj Pratap Singh, better known as Raja Bhaiyya.

To this, Bhandari replied later: ``Yes, I made an error swearing in Raghuraj Pratap Singh. But I also made an error swearing in 17 other like him. Those minister, all criminals, continue in office today.'' Instantly, there was a round of spirited applause from an audience that included Manmohan Singh, Jitendra Prasada (whom Deve Gowda kept referring to in his speech), Abid Hussain (who planted two firm kisses on Bhandari's cheeks at the end of the proceedings), Ram Vilas Paswan, Waseem Ahmed of the Janata Dal (who, clearly in a hurry to go, kept complaining loudly about questions being asked after the speeches), and former CBI chief R.C. Sharma (still nursing a limp and carrying a walking stick).

Deve Gowda had set the tone for the evening with his introspective quote: ``We (the politicians) talk of ethics, morality and public values, but all that is for public consumption. Everyone is taking short-cuts to power. For that, we all must share the responsibility.'' And he had the last word, though he spoke first. ``Unless UP is set right,'' Deve Gowda said to sniggers from the audience, ``Indian politics shall never be set right. UP is the heart of Indian politics.''