Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has sought an explanation from the state’s infrastructure development minister V Somanna, who was seen allegedly slapping a woman at a public event, a person privy to the development said on Sunday.
The minister allegedly slapped the woman when she went to him with a plea to resolve her grievance at an event organised to distribute land title deeds in a village in Gundlupet in Chamarajanagar district on Saturday. The incident was caught on camera and the video went viral on social media platforms.
The chief minister’s office has asked the minister to submit an explanation for his outrageous action by Monday, the person quoted above said.
“Deputy Speaker, Anand Mamani passed away on Saturday night and the government and the party are busy with his last rites, otherwise the explanation would have been submitted today itself,” the person added.
According to media reports, the woman had claimed that the selection process for identifying the beneficiaries for distributing land title deeds was rigged and pleaded to the minister to allot a plot to her.
However, the minister’s office shared a video in which the woman said she only pleaded a plot be granted to her as she was too poor. “I bowed at his feet with the plea and the minister lifted me consoling me that he would help me but it was publicised that he beat me up,” the woman accompanied by her children said in the video.
{{/usCountry}}However, the minister’s office shared a video in which the woman said she only pleaded a plot be granted to her as she was too poor. “I bowed at his feet with the plea and the minister lifted me consoling me that he would help me but it was publicised that he beat me up,” the woman accompanied by her children said in the video.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha member, Jairam Ramesh, criticised the minister for his action. “What a difference from the way @RahulGandhi began the Karnataka leg of #BharatJodoYatra from the very same Gundlupet on 30th September! This shameless man should be sacked immediately!,” he tweeted.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Singh in a tweet in Hindi said a “broom” (the AAP’s election symbol) is needed to rid the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of its arrogance that comes from power.