Corporator's crudity mars mourning

The day marked only condolence speeches with most corporators recalling their interaction with Ali and his attitude towards the welfare of his citizens. The Council also mourned Joshi, to whose memory many corporators paid homage.

Following the first round of condolence speeches, JD(S) corporator from Kaveripura, R Prakash mooted that the Council be adjourned for the day without any House activities as a mark of respect to Ali.

Opposition leaders M Nagaraj from Congress and Padmanabha Reddy from JD(S) endorsed the suggestion. Mayor S K Nataraj took the suggestion into account and declared the Council adjourned till Tuesday.

While delivering the condolence messages during a truncated session at the Palike on Monday, BJP corporator from Chickpet, Shivkumar spoke a few words on the great singer that besmirched the solemnity of the occasion.

“We all know that Joshi was a brilliant singer, but he was also a drunkard. He could not sing without having a drink. So, in retrospect, we should not count all drunkards as being the same,” Shivakumar said, to the visible embarrassment of many.  

Aghast, Mayor S K Nataraj tried to make amends.

“Shivakumar made unsavoury remark about Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and the party will be taking disciplinary action against him for passing such remarks on him. The record will be deleted on Tuesday,” he said.