Opposition Furious Over Unveiling of Hindutva Icon Savarkar's Portrait in Karnataka Assembly

Belagavi, Karnataka: Opposition MLAs protested the BJP-led Karnataka government’s move to install the Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's portrait in the Assembly and termed it a unilateral decision. 

Along with Savarkar's portrait, Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai unveiled the portraits of Swami Vivekananda, Subash Chandra Bose, B R Ambedkar, Basaveshwara, Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel before the start of winter session on Monday.  

Protesting the state government’s ‘unilateral’ move Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah and party’s state President D K Shivakumar staged a demonstration outside ‘Suvarna Vidhana Soudha. The Opposition legislators held pictures of several national and state icons like Kuvempu, Narayana Guru, Shishunala Sharif, Pandit Jwaharlal Nehru, Babu Jagjivan Ram among others. 

Siddaramaiah said the Bommai government has not discussed or consulted with the opposition parties before installing certain portraits inside the House and they are not against any one portrait. 

“It was not even discussed in the Business Advisory Committee,” Siddaramaiah said.

Along with LoP Shri. @siddaramaiah Ji, Shri.@DKShivakumar Ji and other leaders staged a protest outside the state assembly in Belagavi against the installation of a portrait of VD Savarkar in the Assembly hall. pic.twitter.com/59CGlIJ8vM

— UT Khadér (@utkhader) December 19, 2022

While the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said unveiling of portraits in the House is Speaker’s prerogative. 

“Whatever happens inside the Assembly is left to the Speaker and the Legislative Department, I’m yet to meet the Speaker, I will talk to him,” the chief minister said. 

Also Read: Kerala Woman Takes Fandom to New Level, Learnt Spanish to Meet Messi