Siddaramaiah loses cool at woman for criticising his son; BJP hits out

#WATCH Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah misbehaves with a woman at a public meeting in Mysuru. #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/MhQvUHIc3x

— ANI (@ANI) January 28, 2019

The public interaction was organised by Siddaramaiah, his MLA son Yathindra, who represents Varuna assembly constituency, and others.

In the video, she said she was upset that his son Yathindra “showed up” seven months after getting elected. “I am not going to keep quiet. We are seeing Saheb today, during the election time,” said Jamalar, a former District Panchayat member.

Her accusation irked Siddaramaiah, who said his son keeps visiting the constituency, which she vociferously contested. To buttress her point, the woman tapped the table twice, enraging Siddaramaiah who then snatched the microphone

The BJP was quick to target the Congress over the incident and called on Rahul Gandhi to take action against its leader.

“Rahul Gandhi should tell what he’ll do with him. This is a crime, the way he abused her. That’s how they see women, they haven’t changed since the tandoor case. They only respect women from one family,” Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

Hitting back at Siddaramaiah for losing cool, BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa said: “The aggrieved woman is from Congress. She is complaining that the MLA is not available. Instead of addressing her grievance persuasively, Siddaramaiah displayed his anger by snatching the microphone from her and shouting at her.”

Karnataka Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao defended Siddaramaiah and said the ‘dupatta’ incident was unintentional. “Sometimes when people start asking questions in a rough way and after hearing them out when they don’t stop, you want to pull the mic. When pulling the mic the dupatta came along with. There was no such intention,” he said.

Later, speaking to media, the woman said she should not have spoken in such manner. “I have no issues, he was the best CM. I only told him about some grievances and spoke roughly. I shouldn’t have spoken like that to a former CM. He got angry because I slammed the table,” she said.

Taking to Twitter, Siddaramaiah said the incident happened when he was trying to stop a long speech of the party worker. “It was an accident, there was no bad intention. I know her since 15 years, she is just like my sister,” he said.

ಇಂದು ವರುಣ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆದ ಸಭೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಪಕ್ಷದ ಕಾರ್ಯಕರ್ತೆಯೊಬ್ಬರ‌ ದೀರ್ಘ ಭಾಷಣವನ್ನು ನಿಲ್ಲಿಸಲು ಪ್ರಯತ್ನಿಸುವಾಗ ನಡೆದ ಘಟನೆ‌ ಆಕಸ್ಮಿಕವಾದುದು, ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ದುರುದ್ದೇಶ ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ. 15 ವರ್ಷಗಳಿಂದ‌ ನಾನು ಬಲ್ಲ‌ ಆ‌‌ ಕಾರ್ಯಕರ್ತೆ ನನ್ನ‌ಸೋದರಿ ಸಮಾನ.@INCKarnataka

— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) January 28, 2019

Reflecting on the incident, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women Rekha Sharma said the commission would write to Karnataka police seeking appropriate action on the matter.