From being Huliya, Siddaramaiah now reduced to being helpless: Sunil Kumar

Stating that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was “reduced to helplessness” to the extent of affecting the State’s administration, BJP member V. Sunil Kumar on Wednesday taunted him by asking if it was caused by putra vyamoha (love towards son) or frequent reminders on stepping down from the post.

“Earlier, people would call you Huliya (man who is like a tiger). But your own party leaders now say that you are not the earlier Siddaramaiah,” Mr. Sunil Kumar told the Chief Minister in the Assembly while participating in a motion of thanks to the Governor’s address.

“Your helplessness is marked by the fact that you could not retain your own man K.N. Rajanna in your Cabinet,” he remarked. “The demolition of encroachers of government land in Kogilu Layout of Bengaluru too demonstrated your helplessness as you rushed to protect the encroachers soon after your party bosses stood by them.”

Accusing the Congress government of maladministration and large-scale corruption, Mr. Sunil Kumar alleged that the government was toeing the path of friction to divert public attention. “First they picked the Union government and accused it of showing bias in release of central grants. They even attacked Election Commission of India. They have not spared anyone, including the film industry and Kannada Sahitya Parishat. This is just to cover up their own failures,” he alleged.

Even the law and order machinery in the Congress regime had become “selective” as it had different parameters to handle Congress leaders and others, he alleged. “This government has not just changed the caps of police, but also changed their attitude so that they are pro-Congress. This is indicated by the failure by the government to nail the culprits who attacked the residence of BJP MLA G. Janardhana Reddy and delay in arrest of Congress leader who threatened Sidlaghatta woman municipal commissioner,” he said.

Describing the decision to hold elections to the five city corporations under Greater Bengaluru Authority through ballot paper as a “retrograde” measure, he wondered if the government was taking the Silicon Valley of India to the stone age. He sought to remind the Congress leaders that EVMs had been introduced by their own leader Rajiv Gandhi.