Congress leader and former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has stirred up a row after he compared BJP leaders to dogs. Speaking at an event in Mysore on Thursday, Siddaramaiah said that when he talks, “25 people from BJP start barking against me like Mudhol (hound) dogs”. “But when they bark, only I have to speak, no one else from our party speaks,” the veteran Congress leader was quoted by ANI as saying.
“Our people don’t talk, and that’s why we have distributed books from our office,” he added.
Mudhol Hound or Caravan Hound is usually used by Karnataka villagers for the purpose of hunting or as guards.
The former CM’s remarks came in the wake of the controversy in the state over the alleged “saffronisation” of textbooks, with some sections objecting to the alleged replacing of a chapter on Bhagat Singh with an essay on a speech by RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in the revised Kannada textbook for Class 10.
Subsequently, there were allegations about the omission of a chapter on Narayana Guru and several other prominent figures and their literary works. There have been demands by opposition Congress and some writers for sacking the textbook review committee chief Rohith Chakratirtha for allegedly “saffronising” school textbooks.
Siddaramaiah participated in a protest on Thursday called by the Karnataka Congress at the Legislative Assembly over the issue. Speaking to reporters, the Congress leader said, “The textbook has been revised by Rohith Chakrathirtha (head of the textbook revision committee), who is an orthodox RSS man. I hope the government will consider revising it, if not, we will go to the streets.”
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has already made it clear that the government will not remove the lesson on Hedgewar. However, he said his government is open to suggestions on textbook-related issues.
With inputs from News18
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