Kumaraswamy hits out at CM Siddaramaiah for questioning secular credentials of JD(S)

PTI, Sep 30, 2023, 3:48 PM IST

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Bengaluru: JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Saturday slammed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for questioning the secular credentials of his party after its alliance with the BJP.

The JD(S) second-in-command also took a swipe at Siddaramaiah and sought to know how his party Congress had formed an alliance with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra who had at one point in time been allies of the BJP.

In a message on ‘X’, Kumaraswamy said: ”How secular it is to hold meetings of caste and distribute cookers and iron boxes with the tag line ‘secular? Is it secular to hold a conference of religions and a meeting for a caste claiming to be the leader of minorities and backward communities? Tell me Mr Siddaramaiah?”

Siddaramaiah is a pseudo-socialist who uses the term socialism for political advantage to brand BJP as communalist, the former chief minister said.

”Your adjustment politics is world famous. Is the @INCIndia party secular which has formed alliance with BJP B team members in INDIA block? ”Stalin, Mamata Banerjee, Farooq Abdullah, Nitish Kumar, Hemant Soren, Vaiko, Mehbooba Mufti, Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray. Aren’t you ashamed to sit next to them?” Kumaraswamy wondered while referring to the leaders of INDIA alliance.

”You branded @JanataDal S as BJP B team for the sole reason that it formed government with @BJP4Karnataka in 2006 but the Congress was the one, which had come to former prime minister H D Deve Gowda’s house to form the government with the same B team in 2018!” he added.

The former chief minister sought to remind Congress that secularism is not a word, but a loyalty deep in the heart. However, he said secularism is just a matter of speech for Siddaramaiah saying he is obsessed with selfish politics and a thirst for power.

Kumaraswamy’s outburst against Siddaramaiah follows the latter’s message on ‘X’.

”Will the JDS, which claims to be secular, remained secular even after its alliance with a communal party? We have no problem with JDS’s alliance with BJP or any other party. Will alliance make JDS communal? Or does BJP follow a secular ideology? Let Kumaraswamy make it clear to the people of the state,” Siddaramaiah had said.