JOIN USChief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday yielded to pressure from the Opposition parties and agreed to reinstall the portraits of former prime ministers H D Deve Gowda and Atal Behari Vajpayee in his chambers in the Vidhana Soudha.
The JD(S) and BJP members in the Legislative Assembly took serious objection to the removal of the portraits of the former prime ministers. They said there were portraits of four prime ministers in the chief minister’s chambers - those of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Gowda and Vajyapee. However, only the latter two had been removed.
The Assembly had to be adjourned for nearly 90 minutes following a dharna by JD(S) members in the well of the House demanding that the portraits be reinstalled.
A consensus emerged after Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa invited Siddaramaiah, Leader of the Opposition H D Kumarswamy and BJP floor leader Jagadish Shettar to his chamber for a discussion. Later, Thimmappa announced that it was decided at the meeting that the portraits would be reinstalled.
“It is a small issue which has been resolved. The portraits were not removed with any vested interest. There are several burning issues in the state on which we should concentrate our time and energy,” he said. Following the Speaker’s statement, JD(S) members withdrew their dharna.
Earlier, N Chaluvarayaswamy (JD-S), who raised the issue, sought to know the reason for removing only Gowda's portrait while retaining photographs of other leaders. Shettar, who also sought to know the reason for removing Vajpayee's portrait, accused the chief minister of indulging in politics of hatred.
‘My discretion’
Siddaramaiah said the decision to have portraits in his office is left to his discretion. “Moreover, I want to clarify that it was not done intentionally. I will look into all the rules in this regard and take an appropriate decision,” he stated.
Not satisfied with Siddaramaiah’s reply, the JD(S) members trooped into the well of the House and staged a dharna.
But, Siddaramaiah remained adamant.
“I do not have to listen to whatever you say. You (Opposition parties) are unnecessarily creating a controversy. It is mandatory to have portraits of the Mahatma Gandhi, the President of India and the prime minister in all government offices. But it is left to the discretion of the department heads to have any other portraits. Hence, it is my discretion to have any portrait in my office,” he argued.
Interestingly, none of Siddaramaiah’s cabinet colleagues or Congress legislators came to his rescue or defended his action. In an effort to end the deadlock, the Speaker adjourned the House briefly and held a meeting to sort out the issue.