Kharge calls Shivakumar’s RSS anthem episode a ‘closed chapter’ after apology
The Congress president said he will not reopen the case after Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar apologised for singing the RSS anthem in the Assembly
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday (August 27) said the episode of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s reciting the RSS anthem in the state Assembly was a “closed chapter” after he tendered an apology.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, he said he would not reopen a ‘closed case’. “The matter got over after he apologised. You (media) should not latch onto it,” the Congress chief, who is also an MP in Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, said. He, however, cautioned that such an act should not be repeated.
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The Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House said Shivakumar shouldn’t have done it, but since he apologised later, he would not "reopen the case".
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The state’s ruling party was left shocked after Shivakumar, who is also the chief of the Congress’s state unit, sang the RSS’s anthem during an August 22 discussion in the Assembly regarding the stampede near Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 4, resulting in the death of 11 people. A video went viral showing Shivakumar’s act and fuelled the criticism.
He sang ‘Namaste Sada Vatsale Matrubhoome...’ (Take my salute, loving motherland!). Facing a backlash from many of his party colleagues, Shivakumar later said he was only trying to pull the Opposition’s leg and did not mean to hurt anyone’s feelings.
On Tuesday (August 26), the deputy CM said some of his friends were trying to exploit the issue and confuse the public. Tendering his apology, Shivakumar vowed to remain a Congressman till death and reaffirmed his loyalty to the Gandhi family.
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The incident has given the Opposition BJP ammunition to target the ruling party, which criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mention of the RSS, the saffron party’s ideological parent, in his Independence Day speech on August 15.
(With agency inputs)