BS Yediyurappa demands Minister B Nagendra's resignation over alleged scam
Shivamogga (Karnataka), May 29: Veteran BJP leader B S Yediyurappa on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Scheduled Tribes Welfare Minister B Nagendra, following allegations of embezzlement of crores of rupees from a state-run corporation in his department, and a suicide death of an official linking him to it.
"It is unfortunate that an officer has died by suicide. It should not have happened. I demand that action should be taken against those he has named (in the suicide note)," Yediyurappa told reporters here.
There is a demand that Minister B Nagendra should resign in connection with the case, he said, "I demand that he quit voluntarily..."
The alleged misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 87 crore came to light after an accounts superintendent at the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Ltd, Chandrashekhar, died by suicide on Sunday evening, leaving behind a death note.
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He has named the corporation's Managing Director J G Padmanabh, accounts officer Parashuram Durugannavar and Union Bank of India Chief Manager Suchismita Rawal in the note, while also stating that the minister had issued oral orders to transfer the funds.
The former chief minister also expressed confidence about the party winning maximum number of seats in the Lok Sabha and upcoming MLC polls.
"In the Lok Sabha polls, we will hundred percent win 20-22 seats (out of 28)....as the atmosphere is in favour of our party. We are making efforts to win the maximum number of seats in the legislative council polls, and I'm confident that we will be successful in that," he said.
Asked about former MLA K Raghupati Bhat contesting the council polls as a rebel from the South West Graduates constituency, the former CM said, "I don't want to speak anything about him. We had given him all the due positions and responsibilities. Despite that, he is adamant and is contesting. I'm confident that people will take appropriate decision."
The BJP had on Saturday expelled Bhat from the party for six years, after he refused to withdraw his candidature as an independent candidate for the MLC polls from the South West Graduates constituency.
Biennial elections to six seats (three each from graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies) of the Karnataka Legislative Council are to be held on June 3.
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Love, respect & humility missing in Indian politics: Rahul Gandhi
Washington (PTI): Love, respect and humility are missing in Indian politics, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said in his address to the Indian American community in Texas, where he also criticised the RSS for believing that India is "one idea".
Gandhi made the remarks on Sunday in Dallas during his first interaction with the Indian diaspora after becoming Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha this summer.
"RSS believes that India is one idea. We believe that India is a multiplicity of ideas," he said.
"Very much like the United States, we believe everybody should be allowed to participate. We believe that everybody should be allowed to dream, (and) everybody should be given space, regardless of their caste, language, religion, tradition, history,” he said.
“This is the fight. The fight crystallised in the election when millions of people in India clearly understood that the Prime Minister of India was attacking the Constitution of India. Because what I am saying to you is the union of states, respect to languages, respect to religions, respect to traditions, respect to caste. This is all in the Constitution,” Gandhi added.
In his address, Gandhi said his role was to inject values of love, respect and humility into Indian politics.
“I think what is missing in our political systems and across parties is love, respect and humility. Love to all human beings, not necessarily only people of one religion, one community, one caste, one State, or to those who speak one language," he said.
"Respect to everybody who is trying to build an India, not just the most powerful, but the weakest and humility, not in others, but in oneself. I think that is how I see my own,” he added.
Making an indirect reference to the Lok Sabha results in which the BJP failed to get a majority on its own, Gandhi said, "The people were saying the BJP is attacking our tradition, attacking our language, etc. What they understood was that anybody who is attacking the Constitution of India is also attacking our religious tradition."
“We saw that immediately, within minutes of the election result, nobody in India was scared of the BJP, of the Prime Minister. These are huge achievements. These are huge achievements of the people of India who realised democracy, of the people of India who realised that we are not going to accept an attack on our Constitution. We're not going to accept an attack on our religion. We're not going to accept an attack on our States,” he said.
Asserting that the US needs India and vice versa, Gandhi said the Indian diaspora is a "bridge" between the two nations.
"In my view, you should travel freely between these two homes. You should bring the idea of India to the United States and the ideas of the United States to India,” Gandhi said in his remarks.
“You have a very important role because the relationship between these two unions is going to determine the future of both” the countries, he said.
