‘Cabinet is joint responsibility’: Siddaramaiah pulls up Muniyappa for criticising Cabinet colleague

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday rebuked his Cabinet colleague KH Muniyappa for openly criticising another minister, Dr HC Mahadevappa, stating that “Cabinet is a joint responsibility.”

Speaking during the Constitution Day programme (the Constitution was adopted on November 26, 1949), Siddaramaiah explained that the decision to provide reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes SC/STs in contracts was to economically empower those communities.

This was in response to an earlier comment by Muniyappa – Food and Civil Supplies Minister — that the contract reservation scheme was not being effective due to clubbing of several contracts into one.

When the chief minister commented as such, Muniyappa acknowledged the intentions of the scheme but pointed towards Mahadevappa — Social Welfare Department Minister — for implementational drawbacks.

At this point, Siddaramaiah said: “You are also a minister, you have to set it right. Why are you pointing towards him (Mahadevappa)? Cabinet is a joint responsibility. We point towards someone, they point elsewhere. This way, nothing happens. Did Ambedkar also do that??"

While appreciating Siddaramaiah’s decision to introduce the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan/Tribal Sub-Plan (SCSP/TSP) that mandates budgetary allocation for SC/STs based on their population, Muniyappa sought a single-window system to streamline the allocation of funds from the SCSP/TSP kitty to help SC/STs get lands and adequate educational opportunities.

Manuvadis undermine Ambedkar’s contribution to Constitution: CM

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday accused “Manuvadis” (followers of Hindu law-giver Manu) of undermining Dr B R Ambedkar’s contributions in drafting the Indian Constitution, stating that they considered Benegal Narsing Rau’s contributions to be more important.

“No country in the world has as much caste and religious system, cultures and languages as our country. For such a society, only Ambedkar could’ve framed an adequate Constitution. That’s why he was the chairman of the drafting committee of the Constitution. Manuvadis say Ambedkar’s role in drafting the Constitution is less, and that others have contributed more. It’s not correct.”

He accused “manuvadis” of considering B N Rau’s contributions to be more than those of Ambedkar, and accused them of not calling Ambedkar the ‘architect of the Constitution.’

Opponents of the Constitution are there in this country. Are they there or not? We need to identify who they are. Who are the opponents of the Constitution? (they are) Manuvadis. Before we got independence and the Constitution was enforced, there was an unwritten Constitution. That is Manusmriti.