[Watch] Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah Loses Cool, Snatches Mic Away From Woman

Former Chief Minister of Karnataka and the leader of the state’s Congress party Siddaramaiah landed in fresh controversy on Monday, January 29 after he was seen misbehaving with a female party worker during a public meeting in Mysuru. The former minister was seen interacting with the party workers which was held after the inauguration of an irrigation project started during Siddaramaiah’s tenure.

Siddaramaiah snatches mic

The video of the incident showed Siddaramaiah repeatedly trying to urge the woman to sit down even as she uses a microphone to speak. He is then seen grabbing the mic which also removed her dupatta in the process. This forced the woman to sit down to talk in front of the former chief minister.

After the video of the incident went viral, the opposition BJP criticized the JDS-Congress coalition. BJP’s Karnataka unit took to Twitter and said:

CM @hd_kumaraswamy asks a farmer women were she slept

JDS MLA Sa Ra Mahesh calls women cop bloody rascal

& here is @siddaramaiah threatening & abusing a women openly

Demon Dushyasana is finally reborn & resumed power in govt of Karnataka.

This is how Cong-JDS treats women pic.twitter.com/iMUIgzRFmC

— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) January 28, 2019

The National Commission of Women (NCW) took suo moto cognisance of the incident and urged the police to file a case, reported Times Now.

What did the former CM say?

While the former Chief Minister did not apologise for his actions, clarifying the statement, he said, “The incident happened in an attempt to stop a party activist’s long speech at a meeting in Varuna today. It was not accidental. I know the worker for over 15 years and she is like my sister.”

Smt. Jamalar has given clarification about the incident that happened in the public meeting. @BJP4India leaders have insulted her by politicising the issue. There is nothing to learn from @BJP4India leaders & the whole world knows about how much they respect women.@INCKarnataka

— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) January 28, 2019

The incident that happened, when I tried to stop our party worker for taking more time, was an accident.
I know that woman for more than 15 years now & she is like my sister.@INCKarnataka

— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) January 28, 2019

Meanwhile, the woman, Jamala said that not only was he the best CM of Karnataka but that she shouldn’t have spoken in a rude manner. “I only told him about some grievances and spoke roughly. I shouldn’t have spoken like that to a former a CM. He got angry because I slammed the table.”

While Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra defended his father and even said that he should not apologise, Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar asked Congress national president Rahul Gandhi to take action against the minister.

Whatever the case may be, the incident is shameful in the sense that a former head of a state has gone out of his bounds at a public meeting to behave in an irresponsible manner with another person. The actions of our leaders today sets the precedence for the collective actions of others in the future. The Logical Indian condemns the incident.

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