BENGALURU: The debate over Bengaluru’s crumbling civic infrastructure is drawing more attention after industrialist Harsh Goenka backed Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. Goenka criticised Karnataka’s top politicians for targeting those who raise civic concerns instead of fixing the issues.
RPG Enterprises Chairman Harsh Goenka, in a post on X on Sunday said, “It’s unfortunate how thin-skinned our politicians are. When Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw spoke up about Bengaluru’s crumbling infrastructure, instead of fixing it, they turned it into politics.”
On a sarcastic note predicting future action, he further stated, “Now they’ll pressurize her to post ‘positive tweets’. So typical - attack the critic, not the problem.”
He was reacting to Mazumdar-Shaw’s response to Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar. The senior Congress leader, who is minister in charge of Bengaluru’s development, on Saturday said Mazumdar-Shaw and former Infosys CFO TV Mohandas Pai, who has also spoken about the city’s infrastructure issues, had some “personal agenda”.
Responding to Shivakumar’s remarks, Kiran clarified that her criticism is consistent across administrations. “Not true. Both TV Mohandas Pai and I have criticised deteriorating infrastructure in our city to previous BJP & JDS governments. Our agenda is clear, clean up and restore roads,” she tweeted.
Asserting that constructive criticism is welcome as it’s vital for a healthy democracy, the DCM pushed back against “extreme targeted remarks”. Shaw also recounted how a foreign business visitor to Biocon Park was shocked by Bengaluru’s garbage-strewn roads and questioned whether the government truly wanted to attract investment.
