Those at top eventually come down: Kumaraswamy hits back at Shivakumar
Bengaluru, July 2 (IANS) Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Thursday launched a sharp counterattack against Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, saying that fortunes change with time and no one remains in power forever.
Speaking to the media on Thursday at the party’s State Headquarters, JP Bhavan in Bengaluru, the Union Minister said, “The belief that ‘I alone will remain, and everything revolves around me’ is nothing but an illusion. Every position and every phase has an end.”
Responding strongly to D.K. Shivakumar’s statement that “Kumaraswamy has abandoned Ramanagara,” the Minister questioned, “Whose permission do I need to leave a district? Around 80,000 people voted for us in Ramanagara and another 80,000 in Magadi. In the Lok Sabha elections, the people sent his own brother home. Did that mean he abandoned Kanakapura? Instead of making such frivolous remarks, he should learn to work for the welfare of the people.”
Kumaraswamy accused the Chief Minister of prioritising only his politically sponsored Bengaluru South district. It can be noted that CM Shivakumar got the name of Ramanagara district changed to Bengaluru South.
“Everyone knows where the Chief Minister’s priorities lie. While pursuing his own business interests, is he the Chief Minister only for these four taluks or for the entire State? Does he have any sense of responsibility towards all of Karnataka?” he asked.
He said that when a delegation from Ramanagara sought Rs 770 crore for the district’s development, the Chief Minister chose instead to deliver a speech on the proposed Bidadi Township.
“Not a single person there had come to discuss the Bidadi Township. Yet he spoke only about that issue. I heard him say that these four taluks alone matter to him. If that is the case, is he the Chief Minister of just four taluks, or of the whole of Karnataka? Is he the Chief Minister only for Bengaluru South?”
Kumaraswamy further pointed out that the Chief Minister had claimed no development had taken place in the region until now. “When I first came to Ramanagara, not even a single village had proper roads. Where was this man then?” he questioned.
Recalling D.K. Shivakumar’s earlier representation of Sathanur and his current Kanakapura constituency, Kumaraswamy said many villages in Kanakapura had no electricity.
He said that despite being just 53 kilometres from Bengaluru city, the constituency lacked electricity and drinking water facilities. Where did those facilities come from? How were they created? Who made them possible? He should answer these questions.
“I have done whatever development was possible within my capacity. I never went around breaking rocks, nor did I export them abroad. I worked for the people of Kanakapura to the best of my ability. There was hardly a proper road then.”
Referring to the Bidadi Satellite Township proposal, Kumaraswamy said that when he announced the project, D.K. Shivakumar and the Congress opposed it.
“Farmers too expressed reservations. A fact-finding committee headed by H.K. Patil was constituted. If they have the courage, let them place that committee’s report before the people,” he said.
–IANS
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