Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, who in a series of tweets was dubbed “anti-Hindu” by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, on Friday faced attack by JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy who called him “anti-Muslim”.
Mr. Kumaraswamy, who has been attacking Mr. Siddaramaiah on various fronts in recent times, on Friday held him responsible for rajakeeya naramedha (“political genocide”) of several Muslim leaders in the party and called him “terminator of minority leaders”.
He alleged that Mr. Siddaramaiah was the force behind the declining political fortunes of several Muslim leaders in the Congress, including Roshan Baig, Tanveer Sait, and Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi among others. Mr. Kumaraswamy held Mr. Siddaramaiah responsible for the recent expulsion of M.A. Saleem for making disparaging remarks about KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar.
Interestingly, without directly naming him but calling him “Siddha shoora”, Mr. Kumaraswamy said that soon the “true colours” of Mr. Siddaramaiah would be exposed to the minority community. He added that neither the Congress nor Mr. Siddaramaiah held any “patent” for minority welfare.
The war of words between the two former Chief Ministers comes in the backdrop of JD(S)’s decision to field Muslim candidates in bypoll-bound constituencies of Hangal and Sindgi, which Mr. Siddaramaiah said was a ploy to divide Muslim votes, thereby directly helping the BJP. Mr. Siddaramaiah, who was campaigning in Hangal constituency for party candidate Srinivas Mane, refused to comment on the tweets by Mr. Kumaraswamy.
Earlier this week, Mr. Bommai and Mr. Siddaramaiah had engaged in a Twitter war over the latter’s criticism that the former was “handing over law and order to RSS and was establishing a Jungle Raj” in Karnataka. Mr. Bommai’s statements that moral policing in coastal districts has to be seen from the prism of “action and reaction” and such incidents occur when there is moral degradation in society was criticised by Mr. Siddaramaiah.
‘In competition’
Meanwhile, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi dismissed the criticisms of the RSS and the BJP by both the former Chief Ministers and said they were “in a competition” to garner minority votes.
