K’taka Assembly adjourned till Monday as Cong escalates demand for Minister’s removal

PTI, Feb 18, 2022, 3:08 PM IST

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The Karnataka Assembly was adjourned till Monday following uproar by the Congress, demanding the resignation of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister over his statement regarding the national flag. Proceedings were supposed to start at 10 AM but commenced after a delay of about two hours as din prevailed with the Congress MLAs in the well of the House raising slogans. The day began with paying tributes to former MLA G V Mantur, who died at the age of 92 in Bagalkote on Thursday. As the Question Hour began soon after, the Congress MLAs began sloganeering demanding dismissal of Eshwarappa. Kageri later asked the leader of the opposition Siddramaiah to speak on the motion of thanks to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot’s address but the Congress MLAs did not relent. To this, the Speaker termed this behaviour of the Congress improper and appealed to them to stage the demonstration outside the assembly. The Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy too denounced the behaviour of the Congress MLAs and appealed to the chair to put an end to the disruption of the proceedings of the house. ”It is not on an insult to minister K S Eshwarappa but also the Speaker of the House. Some decision has to be taken to maintain the decorum of the house,” Madhuswamy said. Senior Congress MLA and former speaker K R Ramesh Kumar asked Kageri to suspend the Congress MLAs as they have all decided not to go out. JD(S) MLA H D Revanna too expressed his displeasure over the disruption of the house for the past three days. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai too criticised the behaviour of the Congress saying that Karnataka Assembly has never ever seen in its history such a demonstration for ”trivial reasons”. ”There is no public interest involved in their (Congress) agitation. They are doing it for prestige issue and for political gain. They have forgotten their duty. It shows their bankruptsy of ideology,” an upset Bommai said. Alleging that the opposition Congress MLAs were only trying to seek public attention and disrespecting the chair, Bommai said their act was ”disloyalty towards constitution of India and the children of the state, which tantamount to treachery”. The Chief Minister appealed to the Speaker to give an opportunity to House to function normally. However, Congress legislators continued their sloganeering demanding expulsion of Eshwarappa for his ‘Bhagwa Dhwaj’ remark. Finally, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings of the house till Monday morning. The disruption on the third day on this issue happened hours after the Congress legislators spent the whole night inside the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and Council, escalating demand for the dismissal of Eshwarappa, and that he be booked for sedition. Eshwarappa said on February nine that ‘Bhagwa dhwaj’ (saffron flag), may become the national flag some time in the future. The senior party leader, however, had said, tricolour is the national flag now, and it should be respected by everyone. ”Hundreds of years ago the chariots of Sri Ramachandra and Maruthi had saffron flags on them. Was the tricolour flag there in our country then? Now it (tricolour) is fixed as our national flag, what respect it has to be given, should be given by every person who eats food in this country, there is no question about it,” Eshwarappa had said. Responding to a question by reporters, whether the saffron flag can be hoisted on the red fort, he had said, ”not today, some day in the future. Discussions are today taking place in the country on ‘Hindu vichara’ and ‘Hindutva’. People used to laugh at one point when we said Ram Mandir will be constructed in Ayodhya, aren’t we constructing it now? In the same way some time in the future, after 100 or 200 or 500 years Bhagwa dhwaj may become the national flag. I don’t know.” Siddaramaiah on Thursday accused the BJP and Sangh Parivar of disrespecting the national flag, and said the Congress decided to stage ‘day-and-night’ protests, to take the issue to a ”logical end”. Noting that the Governor, who is the constitutional head, should have intervened and given instructions for Eshwarappa’s dismissal, as his ”comments amount to treason”, he said, ”the Chief Minister is also not taking action against Eshwarappa, the RSS is implementing its hidden agenda through Eshwarappa.” Renewing the attack on Friday, Congress state president D K Shivakumar told reporters that there was no question of giving up the agitation till Eshwarappa is dismissed.