After Hublot row, CM turns wary of gifts

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday left his audience in splits when he said he was wary of accepting gifts following the watch (Hublot) controversy. He was speaking after inaugurating Shivasharane Hemareddy Mallamma study chair at the Gulbarga University.

The chief minister was presented a gold medal and a silver idol of a cow and a calf by Higher Education Minister Ba­sa­va­raj Rayaraddi during the programme. Rayaraddi said, “The medal is being given to the chief minister for presenting one of the best budgets.”

“I was presented a watch (Hublot) by Dr Varma (Girish Chandra) which I wore for four months. But it became a huge controversy later. People accused me of wearing an expensive watch despite coming from the socialist movement.

I donated the watch to the government.” Siddaramaiah, who announced on the stage that he was returning the gifts to the Gulbarga University, said “small issues become big controversies later.” Later speaking to DH, Rayaraddi said it was he who presented the 10-gm gold medal and the silver idol, but he didn’t know their value.