Bangalore: Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly N. Dharam Singh has urged Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy to convene an all-party meeting to consider taking a delegation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to counter the resolution passed by the Maharashtra Assembly on the Belgaum issue.

Mr. Singh told presspersons here on Tuesday that the border issue was a delicate one, and Karnataka could not afford to be a silent spectator and had to react properly. Otherwise, the Centre might conclude that the State had no objection to the Maharashtra Assembly resolution.

He said Karnataka should again urge the Centre not to meddle with the recommendations of the Mahajan Commission and the States Reorganisation Commission as well as the Lok Sabha resolution on the border row.

The former Chief Minister leader was unhappy that Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had endorsed the stand of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti and the Shiv Sena when their members raised the matter in the Assembly. He should not have met the MES members who were staging a dharna. In a democratic set-up, persuasion was the only way of settling disputes, he said.

CBI inquiry sought

He demanded a CBI inquiry into the violence in Bangalore on April 12 and 13 following the death of Kannada matinee idol Rajkumar.

Reminding Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa that he used to demand CBI investigation on flimsy grounds, he said there had been a complete breakdown of law and order and the police remained silent spectators to the orgy of violence unleashed by unruly mobs.

He said there was confusion even in deciding on the place where the body of Rajkumar should be kept for the public to pay their respects. Why were no orders issued to the police to quell the violence, he asked.

He questioned the claim of the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda that his party would not align itself with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the coming elections to urban local bodies. Mr. Singh wanted to know why he was fooling the people as the Janata Dal (S) was an ally of the BJP in the Government. Political parties, he said, should have commitment to values and should not create confusion on issues such as secularism.

Reminding Mr. Deve Gowda that the High Court of Karnataka had asked the petitioners in the disqualification case to go by the verdict of the Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Singh said it was better to learn from what happened to the Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs who defected to the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh following the High Court order there.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail