Ready for narco test: Kumaraswamy

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and H D Kumaraswamy of the JDS,himself a former CM,have over the past one week been engaged in a game of calling each other a liar.

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and H D Kumaraswamy of the JDS,himself a former CM,have over the past one week been engaged in a game of calling each other a liar,so much so that both are willing to swear before God,literally,to prove the other is lying.

There is a tentative date fixed and a God identified in a game where politics is hardly visible. The date is June 27 and the deity is Lord Manjunatheshwara of Dharamsthala known to be a place for dispute resolution.

On Monday,Kumaraswamy said he was ready to take a truth serum test as well to prove he was not lying.

The current turn of events has political leaders pulling their hair out in exasperation especially over the diversion of arguments from serious issues such as fertiliser shortage and corruption.

The ongoing battle between Kumaraswamy and Yeddyurappa began unraveling after Kumaraswamy accused the CM last week of attempting to bribe him into silence. The former CM,who has been threatening to make public on June 22 documents on major corruption in the government,said Yeddyurappa had deputed his close aide Lehar Singh to try and buy his silence.

He claimed that Singh offered a peace meeting with Yeddyurappa at an ayurvedic retreat in Kerala where the two men were booked to share concurrent time. Kumaraswamy claimed that Yeddyurappa was proposing a truce by suggesting the possibility of the two parties having to come in case of a hung Assembly in the 2013 polls.

Yeddyurappa responded by calling Kumaraswamy a liar through a government advertisement released in newspapers. He cited instances such as the refusal of the JDS to honour a 20:20 power sharing agreement with the BJP in 2007 as examples that Kumaraswamy and his party were untrustworthy. Yeddyurappa claimed in the advertisement that he is willing to swear before the deity at Dharamsthala that no truce meeting had been sought with the JDS by him or anyone representing him.

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Kumaraswamy said he was willing to to do the same. How many times has Lehar Singh come to meet me and tried to influence me? There are call records for this, he claimed.

Lehar Singh has reportedly admitted that he had contacted Kumaraswamy on a few occasions.

While Kumaraswamys father H D Deve Gowda is not impressed with the stand taken by his son or the Chief Minister,Congress leader Siddaramaiah has termed as unconstitutional the dragging of the issue before Lord Manjunath.