Bengaluru/New Delhi: Congress MLC BK Hariprasad Monday demanded an apology from deputy CM DK Shivakumar for singing the RSS anthem in the state assembly, seeking to know whom he was trying to please.“No one will object if he sings the RSS anthem as deputy CM because the govt does not belong to a party but to seven crore people of Karnataka—RSS, Jamat-e-Islami, Talibanis, and various others. But he is not supposed to sing it as the Congress state president,” Hariprasad said.Shivakumar sang the anthem during a discussion on the Chinnaswamy stadium stampede on Aug 21. “If he sings (it) as Congress state president, then he must apologise. It’s not proper to sing the prayer of an organisation that killed Mahatma Gandhi,” Hariprasad said. “He has many faces—a farmer, quarry owner, educationist, businessman, industrialist and politician. He may be this one also (RSS worker),” he said, stressing that Congress members cannot compromise on the party’s ideology.However, social welfare minister HC Mahadevappa and senior Congress MLA Tanveer Sait defended Shivakumar.“He (Shivakumar) has only asserted that he too is a Hindu. Congress will continue to fight against that (RSS) ideology. Those who support secularism, democracy, and the Constitution will oppose it (RSS). Just because Shivakumar sang the RSS anthem does not mean he is in favour of BJP,” Mahadevappa said and called for condemning religious extremism and any organisation harmful to democracy and the Constitution.Sunday, former cooperation minister KN Rajanna had also taken a jibe at Shivakumar, saying the latter can do whatever he wishes with no action from the party high command. “He (Shivakumar) can recite the RSS anthem, share the dais with union home minister Amit Shah at a private event, and do whatever he wants. But we cannot say anything,” he said.Rajanna was recently dismissed from the Siddaramaiah cabinet after his comments on Lok Sabha opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s vote theft allegations.
