The Opposition Congress has decided not to pose any questions during the ongoing session of the Legislative Assembly to six Ministers who have gone to a civil court and obtained a media gag order against the telecast or publication of any defamatory material against them.
The move of the Ministers followed the alleged sex-for-job scandal involving the BJP’s Ramesh Jarkiholi, who had to step down as Minister subsequently.
During Question Hour on Tuesday, Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri asked Puttaranga Shetty of the Congress to ask a question to Minister for Youth Empowerment and Sports and Planning K.C. Naranayana Gowda on funds released to Chamarajanagar district. Mr. Shetty said he was not asking the question since the Minister had “no moral right” to continue in office.
The Congress member said he had submitted the question before the commencement of the Assembly session, but he was now not interested in seeking an answer from the Minister. The Speaker took exception to this and said such conduct did not augur well in Parliamentary democracy.
Sources in the Congress said the party’s MLAs have decided against asking questions to the six Ministers who had gone to court, as they had no moral right to continue in office. The six Ministers — Shivaram Hebbar, B.C. Patil, S.T. Somashekar, K. Sudhakar, K.C. Naranayana Gowda, and Byrathi Basavaraj — had all defected to the BJP to help it to come to power under the leadership of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa.
On Monday, the Congress had boycotted the presentation of the State Budget, also saying the government had no moral authority to continue in office.
In the Legislative Council, Congress members R. Prasanna Kumar and Basavaraj Patil Itagi refused to ask questions to Mr. Basavaraj.
