New Delhi, July 17: After his emotional speech at a JDS event fuelled speculation about strain in ties with ally Congress, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Tuesday said he had shed tears not out of “helplessness” and asserted that he did not speak anything against the Congress.
Kumaraswamy said there was nothing wrong in being emotional at a party event which was like a “family function” for him and accused the media of hyping the issue. The JDS leader said nowhere during his speech had he said that Congress or its leaders were troubling him.
I’m an emotional person, but it is not my helplessness. Did I shed tears at a government programme? As chief minister I have worked towards implementing programmes strongly,” he said. “I was speaking at my family programme. I have shared my pain with family members. I have not criticised Congress leaders. While talking emotionally, it is natural that tears flow. More than a CM, I am an ordinary person with emotions,” he told reporters here.
The chief minister is in Delhi till Thursday morning, during which he will be meeting several Union ministers and will also be chairing a meeting of MPs from Karnataka on issues like Cauvery river water to be raised during Parliament session.
“I spoke for an hour on that day. Nowhere I talked anything about the Congress creating problems. I have told media friends that despite difficulty I have taken the strong step of loan waiver and have implemented programmes, but somewhere I’m not getting encouragement for my good work. “While speaking about it I got emotional as I felt that people still don’t have faith in me (that I will deliver), and not because I was unable to bear any problem created by any party,” he said.
He said his “media friends” made it a big issue and created a national debate out of it. “I have been seeing for the last 55 days, from the time I became chief minister, the electronic media have made news as they want and have placed it before people. Who will benefit out of it? Why are you doing it? Is there a need?”
An emotional Kumaraswamy Saturday had told JDS workers at a meeting in Bengaluru that he was “not happy” being in the top post and was swallowing the pain like ‘Vishakantha'(Lord Shiva), who drank poison. Union minister Arun Jaitley, in a Facebook post, has accused Congress of driving Kumaraswamy to desperation. “Listening to these statements of an Honourable Chief Minister, my memory took me back to the dialogues of the tragedy era of Hindi cinema,” he said.
