Bengaluru, Aug 26: The public spat between defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Karnataka tourism minister Sa Ra Mahesh in Kodagu escalated into a war of words between the state and Centre on Saturday, with deputy chief minister G Parameshwara accusing Sitharaman of “lashing out” against his colleague and the defence ministry saying Mahesh’s “personal remarks” against the Union minister were in “bad taste”.
Parameshwara took to Twitter to back Mahesh, saying, “Our ministers have stayed back in Kodagu for weeks to oversee relief operations along with the district administration. You should extend to them the same respect that they extend for the help from your end. It was disappointing to see you lash out at my colleague.”
On Friday, during a visit to flood- and landslide-hit Kodagu, the Union minister had snapped at Mahesh, who is the district in-charge minister, when the latter rushed her through her interactions with ex-servicemen, among others, and asked her to attend a review meeting with officials instead.
Min must apologise for his remarks: BSY
I am following a minute-tominute programme, minister,” Sitharaman told Mahesh in the presence of mediapersons. “If officials are important, my parivar (family) is also important. Central minister follows the minister in-charge here. Unbelievable.” When told the conversation was getting recorded on cameras, she said: “Let it get recorded.”
Reacting to Sitharaman’s remarks, Parameshwara tweeted: “State governments derive their powers from our Constitution not from the Centre. We are not inferior to the Centre. We are partners.”
Congress leader and former Kar nataka CM Siddaramaiah too joined in, alleging that Sitharaman was “more interested in dominating our minister” than in taking stock of the crisis.
Rebutting the claims, a statement from the defence PRO said the district minister had curtailed the defence minister’s interactions and gone on to make disparaging remarks about her. After Sitharaman left the press conference, Mahesh had told the media that the minister was angry with him as he had tried to speed up her meetings with BJP leaders. He added, “She would have known the pain had she contested elections by standing with the electorate, going to every house, meeting voters and heard out their problems. She has been elected to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.”
“The remarks have lowered the dignity of the upper house of the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and show utter lack of regard and knowledge about the Indian polity,” the defence ministry’s statement said. State BJP president BS Yeddyurappa demanded an apology from Mahesh for his remarks against the Union minister.
The MoD statement said the defence minister’s schedule in Kodagu had been circulated two days in advance. “Subsequently, on the request of the district administration, an interaction with the (armed forces) veterans was added to the schedule. On completion of the field visits...RM was interacting with exservicemen who had been adversely affected by the floods, when the district incharge minister objected and insisted that meeting with the officials be conducted first. RM clarified that welfare of exservicemen was an essential part of the Ministry of Defence and the same was scheduled in the program. However, the district minister insisted that the RM immediately stop the interaction and proceed to the meeting with the officials. While it was extremely unfortunate, in order to avoid the situation from deteriorating, RM halted the meeting and proceeded to the venue of the meeting with the officials. The venue was already set up for the press conference and hurriedly, the officials were summoned to sit among the mediapersons for the review. It was unprecedented to hold a meeting with the officials, with all mediapersons present.”
The statement also sought to clarify the “parivar” referred to by Sitharaman. “One of the four departments of the Ministry of Defence is the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare and in that context it was stated that all ex-servicemen are part of the MoD ‘parivar’. Any other inference is misconstrued and uncalled for,” it said.
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