Yeddyurappa calls CM ‘arrogant’

The spat between Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and BJP president B S Yeddyurappa continued for the second day in a row, with both leaders standing on prestige, unwilling to relent.

A day after they faced off in the Legislative Assembly over the crop loan waiver issue, Yeddyurappa defended his party’s decision to continue with the protest, which disrupted the entire day’s Assembly proceedings. He said that the BJP will not withdraw its protest until Kumaraswamy tendered an apology to Yeddyurappa.

Kumaraswamy however said that he would at no cost yield to the BJP’s demands. “If I yield to the BJP’s demands, I will be disrespecting my chair. What wrong have I done to apologise to him? I haven’t used any unparliamentary language. In fact it is Yeddyurappa who should be apologising to me,” added Kumaraswamy.

Terming the chief minister “arrogant,” Yeddyurappa charged that the coalition government had “systematically” ensured disruption of the Assembly proceedings. He said that neither Kumaraswamy nor his Cabinet colleagues came prepared for session, which is why the government was in a haste to wind up the proceedings.

“The arrogance of power has gone to Kumaraswamy’s head. I merely asked him to give us the time frame as to when the loans from nationalised banks will be waived. But he said I was in touch with the nationalised banks, which is a grave charge. He is not only arrogant, but reckless in his conduct. We won’t tolerate such behaviour. Until Kumaraswamy apologises to me, we’ll not withdraw the protest,” Yeddyurappa said.

“In the 40 years of my political career, I have never seen such a behaviour from the government. Every time there is a deadlock or a stalemate in the House, the government, especially the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, ensures that the Speaker holds talks with both the Opposition and the Ruling members. But no such effort was made by this government,” Yeddyurappa
said.

The Opposition had come well prepared for the debates, but the government wasn’t - and hence it doesn’t want the proceedings to continue,” he added. Kumaraswamy said Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar had summoned him and the Opposition leaders, but the latter were not yielding. “The Speaker called us twice. He advised the Opposition to withdraw the protest. They insisted I apologise to Yeddyurappa. I said I won’t.”