Bengaluru, March 3 (IANS) Launching a sharp personal attack on Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday, Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy accused him of neglecting governance and indulging in political counterattacks, amid the ongoing controversy over alleged phone tapping in the state.

Siddaramaiah had been alleged of tapping phones of Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who is aspiring to become the Chief Minister of the state.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has rejected the allegations in this regard.

In a series of posts on social media platform X, Kumaraswamy said the Chief Minister appeared to be “more busy giving counters than governing”.

Referring to media reports on alleged phone tapping row in the state, Union Minister Kumaraswamy said that he had merely responded to queries raised in the public domain and had not levelled any baseless accusations.

He alleged that instead of focusing on administration after securing 140 seats in the Karnataka Assembly, the Congress-led state government was engaged in internal conflicts.

The suspicion that the phone-tapping issue was linked to an internal “chair war” within the Congress was being voiced not only by the Opposition but also by sections of the media, Kumaraswamy claimed.

“When questions are raised, it is your (Congress government’s) responsibility to answer them directly rather than diverting the issue,” the Union Minister said.

Kumaraswamy rejected any suggestion that he had indulged in phone tapping during his tenure as the Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Saying that he had served two brief terms as the Karnataka Chief Minister without an independent majority, Kumaraswamy added, he had no reason to misuse power to retain office.

He accused the Congress of historically undermining democratic principles, referring to the Emergency period as an example of what he described as the grand old party’s disregard for internal democracy.

Union Minister Kumaraswamy said that democracy did not mean factionalism among legislators, public displays of discord between the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, or threatening the media through the use of government advertisements.

He alleged that divisive politics based on caste and religion for the puropose of power was detrimental to democratic governance.

Kumaraswamy also criticised Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for allegedly dragging Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the controversy and claimed that misuse of authority and vendetta politics against the Opposition had become routine under the present Congress government in Karnataka.

Referring to what he termed a “Siddaramaiah Investigation Team (SIT)”, Union Minister Kumaraswamy alleged that investigative mechanisms were being used selectively.

In a personal remark, Kumaraswamy recalled past political association of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and said that history would judge his political actions.

Kumaraswamy asked CM Siddaramaiah to recall in which political party he was associated with before joining the Congress.

Siddaramaiah had quit the JD-S before joining the Congress and was also a close aide of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.

Kumaraswamy said that his father and former Prime Minister Deve Gowda had accepted electoral defeats without resorting to unethical practices and asserted that he would not “run away from a political battle”.

The political exchange marks a further escalation of tensions between the Congress-led state government and veteran Opposition leaders in Karnataka over allegations of surveillance and internal political rivalry.

–IANS

mka/khz