‘Gandhi family is my God’: under fire for reciting RSS anthem, DK Shivakumar says ready to apologise

Shivakumar said he recited the lines from the RSS anthem to pull the leg of Leader of Opposition R Ashok during a discussion on the stampede at M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru. “My intention was not to praise them,” he said.

Shivakumar said some of his friends were taking a “political leap out of it, trying to misuse it and trying to create confusion”.

While he claimed that he was not under any pressure to tender the apology, he said his objective was to send a message across the country. “I was born a Congressman and will die a Congressman… My loyalty to the Gandhi family (is akin to a relation) between devotee and God. Gandhi family is my God and I am their devotee,” he said.

If anyone wants to play politics with his recital of lines from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh anthem, “it is left to them,” he said.

Shivakumar’s apology came after Karnataka Public Works Department Minister Satish Jarkiholi said such issues should be brought to the attention of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Meanwhile, former minister K N Rajanna, who has been sulking after he was asked to resign from the Karnataka Cabinet for holding the party-led government liable for the ‘vote chori’ issue during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, said Shivakumar could get away with anything in the party.

Responding to the issue, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said that the high command will take notice of such issues. “You have to see the context. In what context he has said, the high command will examine. If there is nothing wrong with it, they will let him know,” he said.

Reiterating his loyalty to the Gandhi family and the Congress party, the Karnataka deputy chief minister said he had to undergo hardships while keeping MLAs from being poached.

He cited the time when he hosted Congress MLAs for a week when former Maharashtra CM Vilas Rao Deshmukh faced a no-confidence motion in 2002. He also talked about hosting Gujarat Congress MLAs to prevent horse-trading during the 2017 Rajya Sabha polls.

Shivakumar said “400 to 500 cases” were filed against him for hosting Gujarat Congress MLAs in 2017. “How tortured I was then? I was in Tihar jail. I had to suffer without even a chair,” he said.

He also went on to list his achievements as the Congress president in the state.

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