BJP is uncivilised, anti-democracy, anti-Constitution: Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday called BJP MLAs "uncivilised" for tearing up copies of bills and the agenda and throwing it at Deputy Speaker Rudrappa Lamani who was presiding over the assembly session.

Due to their action, 10 MLAs including four former ministers were suspended for the rest of the session, which ends on Friday. The BJP as well as the JD(S) boycotted the house on Thursday. Calling the BJP anti-democracy, he said the opposition MLAs behaved in an uncivilised manner.

"BJP is anti-democracy, anti-Constitution and anti-Parliamentary system. Along with that, they do not respect the Chair (Speaker or deputy), which is the most respectable position," Siddaramaiah told the Assembly, replying to the discussion on the Budget, which he had presented on July 7. “What should I call their behaviour yesterday? The word 'indecent' is still a decent word. They behaved in an uncivilised manner,” the chief minister said.

Expressing his anguish over the incident, he said he has been in the assembly since 1983, and twice he had served as the leader of the opposition but he never saw such behaviour. The Congress MLAs never behaved like this, he added. Stating that Lamani has been low since yesterday, Siddaramaiah asked him to be happy as the ruling Congress was with him. “He (Lamani) is a Dalit who is downtrodden for centuries. If there were no marshals in the House, then they (BJP MLAs) would have manhandled him. Such was their unruly behaviour,” he said. The chief minister also took a swipe at the BJP for failing to appoint a leader of the opposition. Siddaramaiah accused the opposition party of not having faith in the parliamentary system of democracy and the Indian Constitution as they spend their time in protests and demonstrations instead of serving as a constructive opposition.

He pointed out that for the first time the Budget discussion happened without the parties having a leader to represent them, as they have not yet selected the Leader of Opposition. “The party has become politically bankrupt as they could not choose a leader of opposition. This is dangerous for democracy,” the Chief Minister said.

Siddaramaiah said the prime minister often spoke of ‘Congress-Mukt Bharat' (Congress-free India) but the Congress will never wish so. “We will not say we will make a ‘BJP Mukt Bharat' or ‘BJP Mukt Karnataka'. Because they are communal and destructive forces destroying social harmony and creating conflict between faiths, our objective is that such forces should never come to power,” he told the assembly.

Referring to the state election results, the chief minister said the downfall of BJP has started from Karnataka. The BJP is dependent on Narendra Modi only because it needs his help to win elections and uses his name to fetch votes, Siddaramaiah said. He added that the Modi's charisma has started to wane. “I don't say Narendra Modi is not a popular leader but his popularity is declining day by day,” he said.

The chief minister said never ever has a PM visited Karnataka 28 times for election campaigning -- either before the announcement of election dates or after that. "Modi conducted road shows and gave public speeches but wherever he went for campaigning, the party lost," he added. The CM also predicted that Congress will win 20 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the BJP will not be able to do anything to stop its own defeat.

“In the coming Lok Sabha election, we will win at least 20 seats. They will not be able to do anything. People are happy today with our five guarantees. Those guarantees were well received by the people of Karnataka,” Siddaramaiah said.