Rare appearance

By Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Senior politician Siddaramaiah never takes his wife out for any function. It has been a tradition to perform puja to the goddess Cauvery when the KRS dam reaches its brim. But Siddaramaiah alone performed the puja for five consecutive years between 2013 and 2018. Two days ago though, Mr and Ms Siddaramaiah jointly attended the marriage of a relative in Mysuru. In the video which is available on social media, Siddaramaiah is seen chatting with his wife and also sharing a joke with her. She is seen responding to her husband’s jokes with a smile. Even fans of Siddu were pleased to see Ms Siddaramaiah in a public function.

Blame it on media
Politicians are known for changing their colours like the chameleon. They talk in front of the camera like brave commanders and backtrack when it boomerangs. Recently, a senior politician spoke whatever he felt before the media. As the statement took a serious turn, he started blaming the media for doing a cut and paste job. Despite showing the neta the original recording, the politician was not ready to accept it. Later, when the media decided not to cover his press conferences, he apologised and said “Swalpa adjust madikolli” as this was the only way to escape the fiasco unscathed.

Level of allegations
There has been a decline in values in all fields and more so in the political field. Hitherto, netas while making charges against their political opponents were addressing them with respect. Now, this has gone into thin air. A few years ago, senior politician SM Krishna as the CM had used a particular word against a member of the Opposition party during a heated debate over an issue. Next day, Krishna voluntarily stood up and offered an unconditional apology to that member. Even that MLA was surprised at the gesture of the then CM.

Now, leaders of all political parties use all kinds of un-parliamentary words and singularly address Opposition members that too in public functions and press conferences. They show scant respect for people even in top posts like prime minister or chief minister. Besides, they abuse them with words like thief, debaucher, characterless and what not. People close their ears so as not to hear such words but not the netas. What a fall…