Bengaluru: Even though Congress president Rahul Gandhi keeps insisting that his party has deep respect for women, his Karnataka leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah seems to suggest otherwise. He is in the pillory for misbehaving with a poor and hapless woman and pulling down her dupatta in full public glare. All this because the brave woman questioned the absence and inaccessibility of Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra.
The incident happened at a public event in Mysuru on Monday. In the video, which has gone viral, the woman is seen asking some questions and complaining about the local MLA and Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra for not meeting the people of his constituency. Irritated, the former CM is seen banging the table, lunging forward, yelling at her and snatching the mic from her hand. In the process, her dupatta also slides.
The woman also does not give up. She too bangs the table. This further enraged Siddaramaiah who is seen trying to shout down the women. “Be quiet, shut up. You say all sorts of things. That boy [Yathindra] keeps coming here. Listen to me, have you ever told me any of these things? How many times have you told me? I can’t write a letter inviting you, you have to come here when I am here.
Please sit down! You struck the table, why? Who has worked for this area, did you do the work? Shut up and sit down. There is a way to talk. You speak like you are a big leader,” he said. The National Women for Commission (NCW) has taken cognisance of his indecent act and said it will write to the Karnataka Police to “thoroughly investigate” the matter.
Meanwhile, the BJP slammed the Congress-JDS government in the state. It said Siddaramaiah is a present-day Dushshashan, the evil character from Mahabharata who outraged the modesty of Draupadi. On the other hand, Congress party leader Dinesh Gundu Rao tried to justify Siddaramaiah’s act, “Sometimes when people start asking questions in a brazen manner and are very persistent, you want to pull the mic. While pulling the mic the dupatta came along with it. There was no such intention.”
