'Protest before Godse statue': CM Siddaramaiah on BJP boycotting K'taka Assembly session

As the BJP boycotted the last day of the Assembly session and continued to protest in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the premises of the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Friday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah taunted them by saying that they should have protested before the statue of Nathuram Godse.

BJP legislators from the Legislative Assembly and Council gathered in front of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi and raised slogans against the ruling Congress government for suspending 10 BJP MLA's from the House. They slammed the CM Siddaramaiah-led government for deputing IAS officers for private political events. The protest was staged under the leadership of former CM Basavaraj Bommai.

Former minister Kota Srinivas Poojari stated, "In 2010, CM Siddaramaiah was the opposition leader and he had kicked the door of the House. Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar had torn the books in the session. Minister Zameer Ahmad Khan had broken the mike in the House. After U.T. Khader took over as the Speaker, the democracy has been destroyed. He has the intention of gagging the opposition leaders. The Congress leaders are carrying out campaigning while giving answers."

Reacting to the protest, CM Siddaramaiah, while answering to the questions raised on his budget at the council, stated that there is nothing wrong in staging a protest, opposing and also staging a protest by coming into the well of the House to get the attention of the government. But, the way BJP members behaved in the House "was totally uncivilized. It was unruly".

"The Deputy Speaker was on the chair and they tore the pages and threw it on his face. We don't know what would have happened if not for the presence of marshals. There should be discipline in the House and one has to follow the rules made by us. The BJP members could have come to the council as the incident had taken place in the Assembly," he said.

CM Siddaramaiah said that the BJP leaders are protesting before the Gandhi statue. "They should have staged their protest in front of the statue of Nathuram Godse. After all, they hail from the family of killers of Mahatma Gandhi. It is unfortunate that such people are staging protests before Gandhi statue. They are the ones who come out with blatant lies, create violence between groups and divide society and tragically ask for justice," he slammed.