When people bat for their caste, caste struggle will go on: H D Kumaraswamy
Ramanagara, May 18: Former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy acknowledged on Thursday that the five 'guarantees' of the Congress "lured" people in the May 10 Assembly elections and not the 'Pancharatna' programme promised by his party Janata Dal (Secular).
Speaking about the demand from various communities that the chief minister should be from among them, Kumaraswamy said a chief minister should not belong to any one community but work to improve the lives of all 6.5 crore people of the state.
He also said he would like to see how the Congress would implement those schemes and the conditions attached to avail the benefits.
"The Pancharatna scheme we promised and the efforts I made day and night for six months to popularise them did not attract people. People might have been lured towards those small-small guarantee schemes of Rs 2,000 (Congress guarantee schemes)," Kumaraswamy told reporters here.
The Pancharatna scheme was a five-point programme related to education, health, housing, farmer welfare and employment.
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JD(S) won just 19 seats in the 224-member Assembly in the polls, compared to 37 in the previous elections in 2018.
Speaking about the success of the five 'guarantees' of the Congress, the JD(S) second-in-command said, "We have to see. Aren't those who prepared these schemes more experienced than me? They must have made some calculations."
The Congress has promised 200 units of free electricity to all households and Rs 2,000 to women heads of families every month, among other promises.
Referring to the poll outcome, Kumaraswamy said "such poor results" were not unexpected for his party. In 1999, former Prime Minister and the JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda lost from two places and the party won only 10 seats but five years later it bounced back with 58 seats.
"The same people who gave this mandate (this 2023 election) will ask for JD(S) in the coming days. Hence, I am hopeful," he added.
To a question about the results in JD(S) stronghold Mandya district where the party won only one out of seven seats, Kumaraswamy said the BJP wanted to "finish off" his party.
"As a part of it, a river of money was flown due to which we were defeated," he alleged.
Regarding the pontiffs of the dominant Vokkaliga community demanding that a Vokkaliga be made Chief Minister, the JD(S) leader said the seers might have said it out of love.
"They (seers) said it because they wanted someone from their community to become the chief minister. I won't call it wrong but one thing I would like to say is when people bat for their caste, caste struggle will go on. This is my opinion," Kumaraswamy said.
"A chief minister should not belong to one community. He should provide leadership that can improve the lives of 6.5 crore people," he added.
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Vadodara varsity staffer held for stalking, intimidating student
Vadodara, Jan 12: An associate professor of a university in Gujarat's Vadodara has been arrested for allegedly stalking and intimidating a woman student, police said on Sunday.
Mohammed Azhar Dheriwala, an associate professor of Hindi at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (MSU), allegedly harassed the student and threatened to end her career, an official from Sayajigunj police station said.
Dheriwala, who has been associated with MSU for 23 years, was arrested on Saturday night.
Police inspector Z N Dhasura said the accused was earlier suspended based on the recommendation of the University's internal complaints committee (ICC) of the women's grievance redressal cell (WGRC) after another student accused him of sexual harassment.
The complainant, a second-year Master of Arts student, has alleged that Dheriwala approached her on the afternoon of January 4 and asked her to accompany him to his house.
When she refused, he allegedly threatened to end her career and even followed her to her residence, she stated in her complaint.
Dhasura said a case was registered under sections 78 (stalking), 352 (intentionally insulting someone to provoke a breach of peace) and 351 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS).
