VIJAYAPURA: As the National Herald case involving several top Congress leaders takes a serious turn, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has admitted that he and his brother, former Member of Parliament D K Suresh, donated Rs 25 lakh to the publication run by the Congress party.
Addressing media persons before participating in the launch of various development works in Kolhar town, near Vijayapura, on Friday, he asserted that the contribution made by the siblings has been done transparently and out of their personal funds.
"It is our party’s newspaper. Suresh and I donated Rs 25 lakh to it, including contributions from our trust. We gave this money out of our pockets and from our hard-earned money. There is nothing to hide about it," he said.
Shivakumar was responding to questions regarding his and other Congress leaders’ names, including Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, being linked to the National Herald case.
When asked if the donation which he gave to the National Herald might lead to legal trouble, he reiterated that there was nothing to hide and the funds were given openly and honestly.
Taking a strong swipe at JD(S) leader and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy on his series of allegations made against Shivakumar, the Water Resources Minister accused Kumaraswamy of being a liar.
He lambasted Kumaraswamy for his recent comments regarding a gold smuggling case involving actress Ranya Rao. "Kumaraswamy must be mentally unstable. He seems to have lost his mind. Which is why he is making such baseless allegations," he said.
Reacting to Kumaraswamy’s remarks on the proposed renaming of Ramanagara district, Shivakumar questioned his political choices. "Why did (Kumaraswamy) come to Ramanagara to do politics? Why not in Hassan, where he belongs? He should first change the name of his town and his father's name before commenting on us," he retorted.
He defended the proposal to rename the district, stating that changing of names has related to the aspirations of the people.
Addressing criticism that the name change was aimed at boosting real estate, Shivakumar admitted that development was indeed a key objective.
"Certainly we want the people of our village to benefit. Everyone should have jobs, farmers should prosper, and investors should come from across the globe. Increasing property value and creating opportunities is part of our vision for development" he said.
He clarified that there were no plans to change the name of Ramanagara town itself. "The name of the parliamentary constituency was earlier Kanakapura and is now Bangalore Rural. Similarly, Ramanagara will remain the district headquarters. We are only changing the district name, not the town’s," he said.
