An angry JD-S leader H D Kumaraswamy today said he would undertake a fast-to-death from Friday if the BJP government failed to order an enquiry into the “chargesheet” against his family released by the ruling party.
Agitated and upset over BJP’s chargesheet titled “Amassing wealth by corrupt practices: A tell-tale story of H D Kumaraswamy and family”, the former chief minister said the State government can order any type of probe into the issues raised in the 55-page booklet.
“If the Government does not order an enquiry within a week and asks enquiry commission to submit report in three months, I will undertake fast-to-death in front of Vidhan Soudha (housing the state secretariat) from Friday (July 8),” the Lok Sabha member and JD-S state unit president told reporters here.
BJP’s attempt through the “chargesheet” is to raise suspicion in the minds of people regarding his family, Mr. Kumaraswamy said and asserted that he would undertake the fast despite being a diabetic and not enjoying good health. “It does not matter even if I lose my life,” he said.
In a major offensive, BJP had released a “chargesheet” on Tuesday, alleging that the estimated worth of known assets of the family of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda (Kumaraswamy’s father) is over Rs 1,500 crore.
“People should know the truth. I want myself to be exonerated. It should be proved before the people,” Mr. Kumaraswamy said, pushing for an inquiry into the charge sheet, which also alleged that Mr. Deve Gowda’s family members own at least 24 companies, mostly started during the periods when they (Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy) were in power in Karnataka.
At one time during the press conference, Mr. Kumaraswamy wondered the need for him to be in politics at all, saying he is “fed-up of dirty politics“.
“I don’t have to be in politics to lead my life,” he said, expressing anguish that despite raising the issue of alleged corruption indulged by the Government and Chief Minister in the past six-seven months, Mr. Yeddyurappa had resorted to “hit-and-run” and running-away from responding to the charges raised by him”.
Mr. Kumaraswamy insisted that assets by his family members as referred in the “charge sheet” were made over the years through legal means, many with a fraction of an investment (and not as quoted in the booklet) and some were factually incorrect.
On the issue of his then government recommending 47 cases for iron ore mining leases, he said most of them had not got Central clearance.
He challenged Mr. Yeddyurappa to hand over the entire issue of mining to Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee which is looking into the illegal mining issue.
