Yeddyurappa’s lunch with Dalits a ‘political gimmick’: Siddaramaiah

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has dubbed BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa’s lunch with Dalits at his residence in Bengaluru on Monday as a “political gimmick”. Speaking to reporters on his arrival at the airport in Mysuru, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the BJP leader was resorting to such political gimmicks in view of the approaching elections to the State Assembly in 2018. When the saffron party was in power, he said the BJP leaders did not bother to go to the houses of Dalits and ask about their well-being or chart out any programmes for their welfare. “It is a political gimmick.... a drama,” he said, adding that the people of the state were capable of understanding the purpose behind the BJP staging such acts. Asked about the challenge thrown at him and other Congress leaders to invite and have food with Dalits, the Chief Minister remarked they routinely eat with Dalits. “Who are Dalits according to them? Are Dalits only the ones they invited?” he sought to know. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s criticism of violence in the name of faith during his recent radio address “Mann Ki Baat” was only for “public consumption”. “The BJP’s agenda is communal. They try to polarize votes on communal agenda,” he said. However, Mr. Siddaramaiah said their experiment will fail in Karnataka as the people of the state are secular. The BJP managed to come to power because of the failure of secular parties, he said and added that a secular government will return to power in the country during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.