Responding to the controversy that erupted in Karnataka a few days ago when Law Minister J.C. Madhuswamy said that “We [the BJP-led State government] are not running the government but merely managing it”, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the Minister was speaking in “another context”. Speaking to mediapersons in Vidhana Soudha, Bommai said: “I spoke to the Minister [Madhuswamy]. He had uttered that statement in a different context with regard to the Cooperation department so there’s no need to speculate on this further.”
Madhuswamy’s phone conversation with a social activist, where he alluded to the government’s incompetence, had gone viral on social media in Karnataka, embarrassing the State government. Ministers such as Muniratna, S.T. Somashekar and B. Sriramulu and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader K. S. Eshwarappa lashed out at Madhuswamy for the remark. The incident is significant politically as it has brought out the internal rumblings within the BJP-led State government in Karnataka.
Acknowledging that it was his voice on the phone, Madhuswamy said that if the Chief Minister sought his resignation, he would resign immediately. “I don’t know when this conversation took place but the voice is mine,” Madhuswamy said, refusing to answer further questions on the issue. But he didn’t take kindly to the criticism of his fellow Cabinet ministers. “I don’t know why my colleagues started reacting without talking to me first,” he said.
Siddaramaiah, former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition, said: “Madhuswamy is a senior Minister. He said that this government is not functioning but merely being managed, to which Ministers such as Muniratna and Somashekhar are attacking him. Bommai is watching all this quietly. Is this government even alive? The law and order situation in the State has completely collapsed and the people of the State are eagerly waiting for elections to throw this government out.”
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