I am also a Hindu, don't need sermons from Yogi: Siddaramaiah

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday took a dig at his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath for stating that the Congress government in Karnataka was celebrating Tipu Sultan Jayanti instead of Hanuman or Ram Jayanti.

Siddaramaiah said, "We too are Hindus and the BJP does not have copyright to talk about Hindus. In Karnataka, we celebrate jayantis of 26 great personalities, saints, historical persons and sufis, including Krishna Jayanti and Ram Navami, which are not celebrated by the Uttar Pradesh government."

Speaking after laying foundation stone for development works at Yamakanamaradi in Hukkeri taluk, Siddaramaiah said he does not need sermons from the Uttar Pradesh chief minister as he too was a Hindu but was not against Muslims, Sikhs, Jains or Christians.

Siddaramaiah said he was son of the soil and knows history of the land and there was no need for him to get lessons from Adityanath. Our state is seen as one of the peace loving states while Uttar Pradesh was called 'Jungle Raj.' Adityanath should make efforts to bring peace in his state. In politics, magic does not work and people from the state were politically aware and know whom to accept and whom to reject.

He said that it was the Congress government which named the women's university in Vijayapura after Akkamahadevi and not the BJP. It was our government which issued orders to display the picture of Basavanna in all the government offices and not these communal elements, he added.