Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Oct 23: Former Karnataka chief minister, Siddaramaiah, has criticized the BJP for deliberately raking up the issue of conferring 'Bharat Ratna' honour posthumously on Veer Savarkar during Maharashtra assembly election and then falling silent abruptly in the issue.
"Till the polling took place for Maharashtra assembly election, BJP leaders were not tired of engaging in rhetoric over conferring 'Bharat Ratna' honour on Veer Savarkar. However, as soon as the election process was over, they stopped touching this issue altogether. This issue will be assigned to back-burner by the saffron party till the next election approaches. It has been a gimmick employed by the BJP leaders often to promoting emotional issues during election time," he commented.
Provoking BJP leaders in a series of tweets on the subject, Siddaramaiah told the BJP to set aside the issue of Veer Savarkar for the present and talk about it during the next election. "For the present, I challenge the BJP leaders to come forward for an open debate on burning issues like unemployment, inflation, farmers’ problems etc," he stated.
None from the Congress had expressed any response to the strategy of the BJP in raising Veer Savarkar issue. But Siddaramaiah had singularly taken the BJP on relating to this issue. He had commented that this initiative to honour Savarkar who faces the accusation of taking part in the murder plan of Mahatma Gandhi reflects the mindset of the BJP. The BJP leaders, making use of this, had begun character assassination of Siddaramaiah by making personal comments about him. Some BJP leaders from the state including C T Ravi had made personal comments like sending him to jail and the issue relating to Siddaramaiah's son's demise to attack the former minister, who currently is the leader of the opposition in the state assembly.
Siddaramaiah said that the leaders who harped on Savarkar issue till the Maharashtra election polling was completed, have now abandoned it all of a sudden.