HDK rules out involvement in phone tapping of seer

The controversy surrounding the phone-tapping case took another turn on Sunday after former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy said that he was being needlessly dragged into the issue.

Indicating that the BJP was trying to reap political mileage from the controversy, he said that he couldn’t have allowed the tapping of Adichunchanagiri Mutt’s Nirmalanandanatha Swami as the seer was his mentor.

In a series of tweets, Kumaraswamy expressed anguish over reports that Niramalanandanatha Swami’s phone was tapped during his tenure as chief minister in the Congress-JD(S) coalition government.

“Reports of Adichunchanagiri seers’ phone being tapped during my tenure as chief minister, and statements made by politicians on the issue has caused me unbearable pain. Niramalanandanatha was a source of moral strength and guided me through his social work. Do you think I could take such suspicious steps (against the seer)? Absolutely not,” he tweeted.

Referring to Revenue minister R Ashoka apologising to the seer, he wrote that his name was unnecessarily dragged into the case. “Ashoka has hastily sought apology from the seer for a mistake that was not committed. I don’t know how he will profit from it, but I pity his hurried move. At the same time, I am immensely hurt at the pain suffered by the seer,” he added.

After the BJP suffered a setback in the Vokkaliga community following the arrest of D K Shivakumar, the saffron party is attempting to alienate the community voters away from the JD(S) - often referred as a Vokkaliga party, by alleging that Kumaraswamy had tapped the prominent Vokkaliga seer’s phone. It can be recalled that Ashoka had recently apologised to the seer on behalf of the government and promised action against those responsible for it.

Prior to the apology, Vokkaliga leaders in the BJP - DyCM C N Ashwath Narayan and Ashoka had attempted to corner Kumaraswamy by raking the issue.