The former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday lost his cool during a public meeting at Gargeshwari in Mysuru district and shouted at a woman party worker who thumped on the table in front of him to drive home her point.
A visibly agitated Mr. Siddaramaiah not only grabbed the microphone from the party worker, Jamalar, a former taluk panchayat vice-president, but also shouted her down, creating tense moments at the meeting organised before the foundation stone laying function for a Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. facility.
The incident took place when Ms. Jamalar was complaining about the alleged failure of Revenue Department officials of T. Narsipur taluk to attend to problems being faced by the people of her town, which is part of Varuna constituency represented by Mr. Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra.
She sought to draw the attention of Mr. Siddaramaiah, who she said was visiting Gargeshwari for the first time after the Assembly elections, to the grievances. Immediately, Mr. Siddaramaiah asked whether the MLA was not available to her. The woman replied in the negative and thumped the table in front of Mr. Siddaramaiah.
After snatching the microphone and angrily asking her to sit down, Mr. Siddaramaiah stood up with the microphone in his hand and came down heavily on the woman for thumping on the table. Though the woman tried to speak after she was made to sit down, she was repeatedly asked to keep quiet by Mr. Siddaramaiah.
Then, Mr. Siddaramaiah asked her why she had not come and met him with the grievances when he had come to Mysuru. When she replied that party leaders had not informed her about his arrival, the former Chief Minister, who had represented Varuna Assembly constituency in the previous term, told her that he cannot write letters to her whenever he came to Mysuru. “You should have come and brought it to my notice when I came to Mysuru,” he said. “How can you thump on the table in front of me and speak as though I have done a lot of injustice?” Mr. Siddaramaiah asked the woman.
Soon, other workers, who sensed the former Chief Minister’s mood, prevailed upon the woman to stay silent and hear out Mr. Siddaramaiah.
Eventually, Ms. Jamalar was heard apologising to Mr. Siddaramaiah, who advised her to behave properly while complaining.
Meanwhile, the Opposition BJP criticised Mr. Siddaramaiah for his alleged rude behaviour towards the woman and said disrespecting women had been a pattern in the coalition government. BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa said Mr. Siddaramaiah’s behaviour was undemocratic and said he was taking out his frustration against the JD(S) on the woman worker. He advised Mr. Siddaramaiah to be patient.
Bharathi Shetty, president, State BJP Mahila Morcha, described Mr. Siddaramaiah’s behaviour as “indecent and uncivil”.
“This is not the first time Mr. Siddaramaiah has behaved so arrogantly in public. Behaving in such a manner with a woman is uncalled for, and he must apologise,” she said, and added that her attempts to approach the Karnataka State Commission for Women had been in vain.
‘Accidental’
Later, Mr. Siddaramaiah said he knew Ms. Jamalar for the last 15 years and she was like his sister. In a tweet, he said the incident that took place in Varuna constituency when he tried to stop the woman’s long speech was “accidental” and there was no ill-motive involved.
