Amid a row over Siddaramaiah’s remarks over Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) attire of shorts, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Karnataka led by party leader Chalavadi Narayana Swamy brought shorts to be presented to the Congress leader. He was detained by the police. The ongoing controversy started after Siddaramaiah made derogatory remarks against the attire.
“I am telling you from the beginning that RSS is a non-secular organization. Has a Dalit, OBC, or a member of the minority communities ever become Sarsanghchalak? What else can chaddis do? They do chaddi work only, chaddis do chaddi work,” said Siddramaiah in Hubli. On Sunday, he had claimed that ‘chaddis’ would be burnt as a mark of protest against the RSS for alleged “saffronisation” of school textbooks in Karnataka.
In response, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday said that Siddaramaiah should instead be talking about the development and future of Karnataka. “Congress leader Siddaramaiah doesn’t have any other subject, so he is talking about such things. People of Karnataka looking into all these things. He should talk about the development and future of the state,” Bommai said, news agency ANi quoted.
A political row erupted in Karnataka after the textbook review committee included RSS founder KB Hedgewar’s speech in school textbooks and omitted certain chapters on freedom fighters and others. While the committee was disbanded by Bommai, the chapter on Hedgewar’s speech was retained.
