BSY rebukes minister for calling lady farmer ‘rascal’

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Thursday publicly chided Law Minister J C Madhuswamy for yelling at a woman farmer in Kolar, an incident that attracted widespread criticism.

The incident occurred on Wednesday, when Madhuswamy, who is also the minor irrigation minister, was inspecting the Koramangala-Challaghatta (KC) Valley project, under which Bengaluru’s sewage is treated and pumped into lakes in Kolar.

During his visit, farmer Nalini Gowda questioned Madhuswamy on the encroachment of the 1,022-acre S Agrahara lake.

At one point, Madhuswamy lost his cool and yelled, “Aye! Shut your mouth, rascal,” and asked the police to take her away. Before this, Madhuswamy told her, “Make a request. I’m a very bad man. You can only air your grievance. Don’t command us.”

A video of this exchange was aired by news channels.

“What (Madhuswamy) said is not right. I have warned him. None can forgive such an explicit manner of talking to a woman. That too, a minister behaving like that doesn’t bode well. I will talk to that woman also and I’ll ensure this doesn’t happen again,” Yediyurappa told reporters.

The incident came as an opportunity for the Opposition Congress, which is already attacking the Yediyurappa administration on the Covid-19 crisis.

Criticising Madhuswamy’s behaviour, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah demanded an apology and asked Yediyurappa to drop him from the Cabinet.

On his part, Madhuswamy said he felt intimidated and so the incident happened. “I apologise. Maybe, I shouldn’t have said that,” he said.

“I’ll even step down if my leaders ask, but at the same time, as someone with self-respect, I won’t surrender to anyone. People should realise that we go to their villages to listen to their problems,” the minister said.

“If they start abusing us publicly, how can we work? We heard the woman out and then told her that we know our responsibility. We asked her to close the issue. She didn’t stop and I got tempted (sic).”