SHIVAMOGGA: A day after eggs were hurled at his car and black flags waved at him in Kodagu district, Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah on Friday said the attacks were ‘sponsored by the state’.
On Friday, too, he was greeted by BJP and pro-Hindutva protesters in Chikkamagaluru district while he was on a tour of flood-hit areas. He visited several affected areas in Koppa and Sringeri taluks. He also went to Sharada Peeta in Sringeri and Jagadguru Rambhapuri Peeta at Balehonnur, where he met the pontiff Prasanna Veera Someshwara Swamy.
As his convoy passed, BJP workers waved black flags and even tried to stop the vehicles at Menase village in Sringeri taluk and Makkikoppa in Koppa taluk. The police, however, quickly stepped in and prevented any further escalation of protests. In Sringeri, they detained several BJP workers who tried to stage a protest against Siddaramaiah.
“What happened in Kodagu was a state-sponsored protest. The government is dead in Karnataka. About 10 people were protesting at a village in Kodagu. There were similar arrangements at four other places,” Siddaramaiah said.
He questioned why the police department failed to intervene and make preventive arrests. “Will the police allow similar protests during CM Bommai’s visit? What stopped the Kodagu SP from making preventive arrests,” he thundered.
“We are staging a protest against the Kodagu police in front of the SP office in Madikeri on August 26. The SP has joined hands with RSS and Bajrang Dal,” he charged. Speaking at a party workers’ meet, he said, “These people worship Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Godse... Would they spare me?”
Eggs, flags natural reaction to remark on Savarkar: V Sunil Kumar
UDUPI: Energy Minister V Sunil Kumar said today’s young generation is not ready to accept CLP leader Siddaramaiah’s attempt to tarnish the image of VD Savarkar. The reaction on Thursday to Siddaramaiah’s statement on Savarkar was not motivated by politics, but was a natural outpouring of anguish by people.
"The days of remaining silent against divisive forces are gone,” he said. Reacting to the ‘egg attack’, he said Siddaramaiah was responsible for creating a divide with his statements.