Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K.S. Eshwarappa landed in controversy again on Tuesday by using an unparliamentary word while describing Congress leaders who had taken exception to his remarks on Sunday that BJP workers when attacked will face the adversary “with the same stick and take two for one”.
He, however, expressed regret over using the word and asked people not to “make an issue” of it.
He had used the word after senior Congress leaders Ramalinga Reddy and B.K. Hariprasad had said that some of Mr. Eshwarappa’s virulent articulations stemmed from his frustration over not being made Deputy Chief Minister, let alone Chief Minister, and he was behaving like a “joker”.
Siddaramaiah hits out
Speaking at Mysuru, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hit out at the Minister for his “irresponsible” and “culture-less” statements against Congress leaders. He said one cannot expect anything better from Mr. Eshwarappa, but he should bear in mind that he is part of the government.
‘Petty’ politics
At the press conference in Bengaluru, Mr. Reddy and Mr. Hariprasad had also attacked the ruling BJP governments at the Centre and State saying they are indulging in politics as “name changers and not game changers” and asked the Karnataka government not to get into “petty politics” with its attempt to rename Indira Canteens, named after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Soon after renaming the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting honour, after Dhyan Chand by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP general secretary C.T. Ravi asked Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to rechristen Indira Canteens as ‘Annapoorneshwari Canteens’. The flagship programme was launched by the previous Siddaramaiah-led Congress government to provide ready-to-eat food to economically-disadvantaged people in the State.
The Congress leaders sought to know if Mr. Modi was a cricket player to rename the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad, as the Narendra Modi Stadium and said that days would not be far away when names of stadiums and schemes would be named after BJP leaders.
