After the Janata Dal Secular (JDS) alleged that former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda was not invited for the inauguration of 108-feet bronze statue of Kempegowda, minister of higher education and IT BT Dr Ashwath Narayan Saturday said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had himself invited Deve Gowda and all the former chief ministers of Karnataka for the event. Narayan said Bommai had invited Siddaramiah, H D Kumaraswamy and S M Krishna personally to the inauguration ceremony and that all political leaders have great respect for Deve Gowda. “I myself had invited Deve Gowda for the ceremony and also for the holy soil collection campaign that we had conducted ahead of the inauguration of the statue. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also participating, the chief minister had invited Deve Gowda for the inauguration ceremony,” said Narayan. Although Krishna showed up at the inauguration event Friday, Siddaramiah and Kumaraswamy and Devegowda did not attend the event. JDS had earlier tweeted, “After Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, the one person who has contributed significantly to the development of Bengaluru is the only man to become the PM from the Kannada land, H D Deve Gowda. The BJP government in Karnataka has insulted the people of the state by not inviting (the former PM) to the unveiling of the statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda.” Meanwhile, the Congress criticised the BJP and Bengaluru International Airport Limited for using government money for the statue and claimed that it was Congress who honoured the founder of Bengaluru by naming the airport after Kempegowda while in power in 2013-2018.
