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‘Samosa kaisa laga?’ NDTV journalist’s question to Rahul Gandhi goes viral

OpIndia Staff
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‘Samosa kaisa laga?’ NDTV journalist’s question to Rahul Gandhi goes viral

Congress and its loyalist media persons keep alleging that PM Modi never answers tough questions and criticise the PM’s interviews claiming that the ‘pliant’ media did not ask him tough questions. However, the tough questions that Gandhi’s face, regarding their food habits and taste preferences, are curiously ignored.

Recently, a compulsive Modi hater (because ‘critic’ won’t be an accurate term for him) Ravish Kumar had ‘interviewed’ Rahul Gandhi. Ravish Kumar, who has long been literally whining in his TV show on NDTV that the PM is not being asked tough questions, was so ‘soft’ on his interview with Rahul Gandhi that even staunch Modi hater and Ravish fan Nikhil Wagle had to call Ravish a ‘Bhakt’.


Amidst all these, an old video has surfaced on social media where an NDTV journalist is seen running behind Rahul Gandhi in Amethi for asking him one very difficult question, How was the taste of the Samosa’?

The video was uploaded by popular Twitter handle @Being_Humor and has gone viral.


In the video, the poor NDTV journalist is seen following Rahul Gandhi, fighting through other journalists trying to get closer to Rahul, and running behind for a glimpse of the Congress president, all so he could ask one profound question, “Aapko samosa Kaisa laga”? (Did you like the samosa)”.


The journalist, NDTV’s Umashankar Singh, first asks Rahul Gandhi about the samosa and gets a Samosa in his mouth in return. He then keeps following Gandhi through the crowd repeating the question, how did Rahul like his samosa. When finally an embarrassed Rahul answers it was good, the NDTV journalist asks the next most tough questions, “You had jalebis too, did you like the jalebis?”. Then,  as if India’s future depends on those samosas and jalebis, the journalist is seen further asking, are you not concerned about your health?

Recently, another old video of Rahul Gandhi had gone viral where, after he finished a Ganga Aarti with much fanfare, when an NDTV journalist asked what did he pray for, Rahul simply answers, “I don’t know, I was asked to be here, so I am here”.

Interestingly, after ANI’s Smita Prakash had grilled PM Modi for over an hour with questions ranging from economic policy, demonetisation, GST and all other challenges the NDA government has faced, Rahul Gandhi had termed it as “pliable journalism”

Child raped in Kashmir, politicians and religious heads blame it on ‘forgotten path of Islam’

OpIndia Staff
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Child raped in Kashmir, politicians and religious heads blame it on ‘forgotten path of Islam’

The brutal rape of the three-year-old girl in Bandipore, Kashmir has now taken a political and sectarian turn. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has suggested the implementation of Sharia where child rapists are stoned to death. Mutahida Majlis Ulema (MMU), an amalgamation of various religious bodies while condemning the rape said that such incidents “are taking place because of the fact that many people in Kashmir, have forgotten the path and teachings shown by the great Sufi saints who put their blood and sweat to spread Islam in its true form.”

As reported by Kashmir Observer, the MMU termed the rape unfortunate and shocking and added how this incident shows in which direction Kashmir, which was once a religious society, is heading.

Meanwhile, separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani while expressing ‘deep grief’ has invoked the Kashmir dispute to condemn the incident. He said, “Bribery and a poor sense of responsibility both in judiciary and police administration has left the galloping crime rate un-tethered, because of the disputed nature of our state.”

According to The Asian Age, the brutal rape also set off sectarian tensions in the valley after it was reported that the victim and the perpetrator belonged to two different sects of Islam.

As per reports, the three-year-old girl had accompanied her uncle to the mosque for the namaaz marking the start of Iftar in the ongoing Ramzan. After the prayer, the girl left the mosque and when she neared her house, her neighbour, Tahir Ahmad Mir, lured her to a nearby government school. About 15 minutes later when he passed by again, the shopkeeper who had earlier sold the chewing gums the accused had bought to lure the girl, did not see the girl accompany him.

When the girl did not show up after a long time, the parents got worried and started looking for her. When the mother was frantically looking for the child, a lady told her that she heard cries from a toilet of the government school. When the mother reached the school, she saw her daughter sitting with her pants down in the toilet and crying. She was bleeding. When she was narrating the incident, the parents realised their three-year-old was raped.

When the parents went looking for the perpetrator, the girl identified the abuser near the same shop from where he had previously bought the chewing gums. The father of the child caught the man and handed him over to police.

People across Srinagar protested against the brutal rape. Anger grew when the local school “Islamic Educational Trust” in Tirgam in Sumbal area issued a certificate declaring the accused to be a minor. Protestors accused the school management of trying to protect the rapist.

As per media reports, Tahir may have even abused many other local girls. He is booked under section 363 (kidnapping), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 376 (rape) of the Ranbir Penal Code. A special investigative team has been set up to look into the crime.

Vilasrao Deshmukh was busy trying to get movie role for his son when Mumbai was under attack: Piyush Goyal

OpIndia Staff
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Vilasrao Deshmukh was busy trying to get movie role for his son when Mumbai was under attack: Piyush Goyal

Union Minister for railways and coal Piyush Goyal has attacked the Congress and its leaders for undermining the nation’s security and giving priority to their own selfish interests rather than being concerned about their duty.

Addressing the business community in Ludhiana on Sunday, Goyal said that on 26/11, when Mumbai was under attack, the then Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh was busy trying to ensure a film role for his son.

As per reports, Goyal Said, “I am from Mumbai. You might remember the 26/11 terror attack. The then Congress government was weak and could not do anything. The then Chief Minister (Vilasrao Deshmukh) had brought a film producer outside Oberoi Hotel while shooting and bombing was going on inside. CM was concerned about getting his child a film role.”

It is notable here that actor Riteish Deshmukh is the son of former Maharashtra CM and Congress leader Vilasrao Deshmukh. Vilasrao Deshmukh was the CM of Maharashtra during the 26/11 attacks. He was criticised by the opposition parties and the public who had alleged that he was meeting filmmaker Ram Gopal Verma when Mumbai was under attack. Deshmukh and his deputy RR Patil had resigned from their respective posts in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks.

Both Deshmukh and Ram Gopal Verma had initially denied the allegations. But reports had revealed that Verma was indeed given a guided tour of the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi hotel by the former CM and his son because he wanted to make a movie on the attacks. Ram Gopal Verma was also explained in detail about how the terrorists had holed up and how the operation was carried out.

India Today report on Vilasrao Deshmukh’s visit with Ram Gopal Verma

Deshmukh, however, was inducted in the Union cabinet in 2009 by the Manmohan Singh government. He died of multiple organ failure in 2012.

Piyush Goyal did not stop at Deshmukh alone. Furthering his attack on the Congress, Goyal stated that the erstwhile Congress government under Manmohan Singh was a “Coward government” as it did not respond to Pakistan after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

Goyal stated that our armed forces were ready and capable of giving a befitting reply to Pakistan. He added that the armed forces kept waiting for orders to respond to Pakistan but the order that was to come from the government never came.

Here is what vindictive Rajiv Gandhi did after Indian Express covered the story of his INS Viraat vacation

OpIndia Staff
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Here is what vindictive Rajiv Gandhi did after Indian Express covered the story of his INS Viraat vacation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the Pandora’s box when he mentioned Rajiv Gandhi’s vacation in Lakshadweep when he and his family, and possibly others, were ferried around by India’s Naval carrier, INS Viraat. The two newspapers that had covered the story extensively were Indian Express and India Today. Now, Indian Express has published a harrowing tale of how vindictive Rajiv Gandhi shot back at the paper after the story was published.

Journalist Nirupama Subramanian has written a column in the Indian Express today recounting the coverage by the paper at the time of Rajiv Gandhi’s infamous holiday. In the column headlined, “By raking up INS Viraat, PM Modi has provided a reminder that we must ask questions to those who wield power”, Subramanian has also recounted that at the time, the question was not just of the INS Viraat standing by as Rajiv Gandhi and his entourage vacationed in Lakshadweep, but also, questions were raised about the need to take a year-end vacation and having expensive cabinet meetings at holiday spots.

She says an earlier report in the Indian Express read, “The system of year-end holidays and holding of Cabinet meetings in tourist resorts, something prevalent in the affluent West, emerged on the Indian scene only after Mr Gandhi became Prime Minister”.

Interestingly, the article also recounts how the Indian Express was hounded by Rajiv Gandhi and his government after reports about his vacation were published.

At the time, Indian Express had published a cartoon strip on the vacation. The cartoon was Rajiv sitting under a coconut tree on an island in the Arabian Sea, saying: “Ah! To get away from it all!” and India responding with a sigh and a question: “When?”

After this cartoon was published, Rajiv Gandhi and his government hit back at Indian Express. Months after the cartoon was published, Rajiv Gandhi tried to introduce the Anti Defamation Bill 1988 which was thwarted by the media collectively opposing the bill.

In July 1988, Gandhi had introduced a draconian bill. The defamation bill was a product of the prime minister’s desire to curb ‘criminal imputation’ and ‘scurrilous writings’. An unprecedented backlash by the Media had eventually forced Rajiv Gandhi to trash the bill.

Subramanian also says that after the cartoon was published in the Indian Express, there were several raids on the premises of Indian Express looking for evidence that they had evaded Customs Duty.

She writes, “For those of us present in the office that day, the manner in which hundreds of armed CRPF and Delhi police personnel took a position inside and outside the Delhi office seemed way out of proportion for a tax evasion raids”.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge’s crass statement: ‘Will Modi will hang himself if Congress gets more than 40 seats’

OpIndia Staff
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Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge’s crass statement: ‘Will Modi will hang himself if Congress gets more than 40 seats’

The political discourse through the 2019 general elections has been finding a new abyss every day. From Congress coining the ‘chowkidar chor hai’ campaign without any proof to filthy abuses being hurled at the Prime Minister. Now, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge has made another crass statement. He has asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi hang himself at Vijay Chowk if Congress manages to get more than 40 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The bizarre statement was made by Kharge while he was speaking at a public rally in support of Congress candidate Subhash Rathod for the bypoll election in Chincholi seat of Karnataka. Kharge said, “Wherever (Modi) goes, (he) says Congress will not get 40 seats (in Lok Sabha polls). Does any of you agree with this? If we get 40 seats, will Modi hang himself at Vijay Chowk in Delhi?”

The statements did not just stop there. Mallikarjun Kharge reportedly said that while PM Modi keeps saying that Congress did not do anything in all these years, he was not even born when India got independence.

Another platitude that was thrown around by Kharge was that Modi claims himself to be from the backward community, but he is helping only the super-rich.

The by-poll to Chincholi has been necessitated by the resignation of sitting member Umesh Jadhav, who quit Congress and joined the BJP to contest the recent Lok Sabha polls from Gulbarga, while the Kundgol seat fell vacant following the death of Minister C S Shivalli.

This is not the first time that a senior Congress leader had made derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Recently, Prime Minister Modi had recounted all the abuses that have been hurled at him over the years, from ‘mad dog’ to ‘rabies stricken monkey’.

Just as Mallikarjun Kharge has questioned the Prime Minister’s backward caste, Mayawati had recently lied that PM Modi had added his caste in the backward category after becoming the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Narendra Modi belongs to the Modh Ghanchi caste, which is listed as an OBC by the Gujarat government. And a perusal of the records shows that Mayawati clearly lying by saying that his caste was included in the list during the term of Modi as CM of the state. Records show that the Modh Ghanchi caste was classified as OBC in July 1994, much before Modi became chief minister.

Hindus stopped from casting their votes in Medinipur constituency in West Bengal

OpIndia Staff
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Hindus stopped from casting their votes in Medinipur constituency in West Bengal

During the 6th phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections in the State of West Bengal, Hindus were allegedly stopped from casting their votes on the Medinipur constituency of the state. According to a report of Times Now, there were inputs coming from booth no. 50 which comes under Belda Police Station in Medinipur constituency that a section of people from the village intimidated and stopped people from casting their votes.


A number of people had reportedly crowded in the houses near the booth who dispersed after the media person reached the spot and inquired about them. The local police also reached the booth later. Conspicuously, both the police as well as the people said that there was only a minor scuffle between the voters over the queue.

As per the reporter present there, people from a certain section (Hindus) have been making frantic calls alleging that they were being allowed to cast their votes as their votes could dedicatedly go to a certain party (BJP). The people who had gathered on the streets around the booth and intimidating the voters refused to reveal their identities.

Fair polling in the state of West Bengal has become a challenge as reports of violence have been coming out since the voting started. Earlier in the day BJP candidate Bharti Ghosh’s convey was vandalised by TMC goons and she was also heckled. Two of her personal security guards were also injured in the incident.

Will Bengal dare to hope, finally?

alopal
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Will Bengal dare to hope, finally?

A myriad colours juxtaposed, a flower bed, the rainbow, and the map of West Bengal with election phase demarcation. When the Election Commission announced the break up of each polling phase only in West Bengal a clump of districts was going to the polls at a time, while with each phase swathes of hinterland and bigger states were completing their seats in one go. Back in 2014 Bengal saw the maximum poll violence. This time, clearly, neither the Election Commission nor the country was expecting any better. And Bengal stooped to this expectation and how!

On the eve of every phase I crossed my fingers. Please God, forge a miracle, uplift by your magic the conduct of the Bengali political class. Let people power overcome gunda culture. Let no one have to die… When you have to pray for something as basic as human decency and hope that no life was lost in an exercise in democracy you know the cause is almost lost. And, alas, as I woke up this morning not only did I learn that even as I prayed last night there were pre poll shootouts at Jhargram, but with every passing hour of the day more violence continues to be reported, Rampura, Bankura…

As a Bengali living away from my state, probashis as we call ourselves, I hate to confess that growing up in the 70s and 80s and looking at Bengal from far, the communist regime had surreptitiously tinted my glasses red and had managed to make me romanticise the intellectual quest of the Bengali to fight for an equitable society. Access to independent media was non-existent and today I have come to recognise with horror the vast conspiracy of this ideology that engineered to destroy the state and deracinate its people.

Change brings hope and hope change but what did Bengal get? The dismantling of decency, the erosion of basic governance, the rule absolute of organised violence and dangerous policies of minority appeasement that pushed Bengal to a state of material and moral depravation that shocks us now only when a new low is reached.

Yesterday the gag orders of the regime could stoop even lower. A young girl had dared to affront the cultured Bengali Sensibility of Bivas Chandra Hazra. He complained to the police. The young girl was arrested for a photoshopped picture she had shared. Bivas must have slept peacefully through the night, as Priyanka Sharma spent the first of potentially 14 nights in Jail.

À few of days ago three young men chanted “Jai Shri Ram” when the Chief Minister’s convoy was driving by. She stopped her car, stormed out. Yelled in a manner Bivas surely found cultured and the next thing you knew the three were in Jail. What’s worse, self-appointed custodians of Bengali culture went to great lengths to argue that Shri Ram was alien to Bangla Ethos. The names of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Aurobindo were pronounced in the same breath as Mother Teresa and Amartya Sen and Shri Ram was relegated to enjoyable mythology. All this of course passing off as posh Bangla sensibility.
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When I look at Bengal today, I think of Egypt. While both their glorious pasts are undeniable, that legacy does not inform any deed or thought of the current population. Deracination is dangerous, it is weakening, it creates fissures in our identity where confusion first settles and is slowly filled up and cemented by values alien and destructive. In Bengal “Useful Idiots” are propped up by a network and collusion of breaking Bengal forces as role models and upholders of her culture and strength. But for how much longer will tales of “now matter how poor each Bengali house hold has a harmonium” or only their apparent innate taste for all things refined be touted as authentic. How long will the educated class consider Hinduism and Indic values beneath their consideration. How long can the lack of the rajas, vitality, wealth and wellbeing fool its people. It is high time the bluff was called.
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Last December on a visit to Kolkata my taxi driver from the airport told me that Finolex had just closed shop, everything was moving out of the state. There was nothing to hope for there. Bengal was today a state of the elderly and mothers with school going children. What struck me as I crisscrossed the city in every possible mode of transport and inconceivable by lanes and gullies was the resignation the people had towards misgovernance, mediocrity, monotony and squalor. It was as though the capacity to think big and dare to aspire was snatched from their minds, a better standard of living obliterated from their fate. Bivas Hazra is one such resigned embittered hopeless soul I think, revolted by the courage of calling out the canker in Bengal that no one dare utter.

It set me thinking and I realised that Bengal had thrown up little from its soil since decades that the Bengalis could look up to and be inspired by. All heroes triumphed outside her soil. The only area was sports. Swapna Barman comes to mind. Witnessing her grit and triumph at the Heptathlon in the 2018 Asiad is a high point of my life! Her story is already legendary. For those of my generation Sourav Ganguly ‘s unabashed arrogance is what we loved most. The Indian team needed that regal aggression to pull it out of the dumps. Maybe there are more, surely there are, but such is the overwhelming sense of chaos, violence, strife, hopelessness, suffocation, misrule and high-handed dictatorial governance that emanates from its soil it’s a pity we don’t applaud those who make it despite the system.

12,000 rupees may not be a small sum or salary in a country like ours but when you hear the taxi driver on our way back to the airport talk of life being “set” for a section of the young educated Kolkatans for that sum under an employment scheme one is hit by the sheer lack of drive of the youth. Why don’t they think big? Aspire to grow. Soar high with confidence and ambition, free themselves from this gloomy resignation to the basic, the “cholchhe choluk” (chalta hai) the mundane.

Bishwambhar Rai, in Jalshaghar is the decadent bhadrolok the Bengali has learnt nothing from. With every snuffing of the candles of that Chandelier there died an era and a lifestyle that had outlived its relevance. Instead of wallowing in sweet nostalgia of an era of which the current lot have retained naught but the vain arrogance it’s time the establishment was challenged and done away with and a new Bengal arose.

For there is no state in India that has better role models to emulate.

BJP-RSS activists donning central forces’ uniforms being pushed in the state: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

OpIndia Staff
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BJP-RSS activists donning central forces’ uniforms being pushed in the state: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has alleged that the central government has sent BJP-RSS activists donning the uniform of CRPF in the state to conduct the polling. She has also asserted that the BJP government at the centre is attempting to influence the voters in West Bengal by using the central forces.

“Under the garb of deploying central forces in the state, the BJP government is vigorously pushing its cadres in the state. I do not disrespect the central forces but they are being asked to influence the voters,” West Bengal CM said. Mamata Banerjee raised her apprehensions while addressing a rally in Basanti area of South 24 Parganas district, claiming that she doubts RSS activists are being pushed in the state under the pretext of deployment of central forces.

Banerjee said that the central forces in-charge of the security of the BJP candidate Bharati Gosh in Ghatal constituency fired and injured one of the TMC workers. Banerjee said, “There was firing inside a booth by the central forces today. I have heard that one of my brothers, belonging to the minority community, was injured.”

Accusing the central forces of attempting to influence the voters standing in queues, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said central forces personnel are asking them to exercise their vote in support of the saffron party. “How can they ask voters what they should do? Is this the job of the central forces to meddle in a democratic process in the country? A few retired officers are being used by the Modi government to administer polling here and they are doing whatever they feel like,” Banerjee said.

Mamata Banerjee further added, “You are here to do a job. You should be ashamed of doing this (asking people to vote for Modi). Today, Modi is at the helm, tomorrow it will be someone else. What will you do then?”

8 constituencies of West Bengal went to the polls on Sunday, in the sixth phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the last phase of the elections, to be held on May 19, 2019, remaining 9 constituencies of West Bengal will be up for the electoral battle.

Feminist Swara Bhasker endorses Digvijay Singh of ‘Sau Taka Tunch Maal’ fame over female victim of custodial torture during UPA govt

OpIndia Staff
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Feminist Swara Bhasker endorses Digvijay Singh of ‘Sau Taka Tunch Maal’ fame over female victim of custodial torture during UPA govt

Icon of modern-day Feminism, Swara Bhasker, renowned for her tirades against the ‘right-wing and general obtuseness, has endorsed Digvijay Singh from the Bhopal Lok Sabha Constituency in Madhya Pradesh.


Bhasker’s endorsement appears inconsistent with her staunch advocacy of feminism considering Digvijay’s own past track record and the candidate he is up against. One of the instances of Digvijay’s despicable conduct was when he had referred to an MP from the Congress party itself, Meenakshi Natarajan, as a ‘Sau Taka Tunch Maal’ (totally unblemished), a sexist slur which means a desirable object. Thus, it appears hypocritical on Bhasker’s part to advocate feminism and simultaneously endorse a candidate who sexually objectifies women.

Moreover, Digvijay’s primary opposition from Bhopal is Sadhvi Pragya, a woman who was tortured brutally under captivity during the UPA regime. She was imprisoned without a shred of evidence for years before being finally released after the UPA lost power. Thus, it appears, for all her supposed commitment towards women empowerment, Bhasker is endorsing a misogynist over a woman who was tortured because of the colour of the clothes she wore. She who felt reduced to her vagina after watching Padmavat has chosen to endorse an oppressor over a victim.

Feminists tell everyone else to ‘Believe All Women’. However, it appears such notions are thrown out of the window when the woman in questions dons the saffron garb.

“Have any BJP leaders ever been assassinated for the cause of this nation?” Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah

OpIndia Staff
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“Have any BJP leaders ever been assassinated for the cause of this nation?” Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah

Former Karnataka Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah has stoked a controversy after he made an insensitive remark questioning whether anyone from the BJP has ever been assassinated for the cause of the nation, reports TV9 News.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-fUxcBJn1s]
While targetting the BJP, Siddaramaiah went on to make insensitive remarks against the BJP leaders claiming that not even a single leader from the BJP has been assassinated for the cause of the nation.

“PM Modi has not protected India, Congress does. Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. Gandhiji was assassinated. Have any BJP leaders ever been assassinated for the cause of this nation,” said former CM Siddaramaiah at a rally in Kalburgi.

Former CM Siddaramaiah was speaking at a by-election rally at Chincholi of Kalburgi district, Karnataka, when he launched a personal attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders. He stated that the Congress is the only political party that protects the nation. He further added that the BJP leaders have only gone to jail following corruption charges and not for any other reasons.

Former CM Siddaramaiah is not new to controversies. Just a week back, Siddaramaiah was caught on video making Hindu-phobic statements when he had said that people with a Kumkum tika on their forehead scare him. He also questioned their work ethics and efficiency.

“I am afraid of any person who wears kumkum on their forehead. You are wearing that Kumkum, will you do the work properly. I am afraid of people who wear that Kumkum. You have to perform well and finish work on time. I don’t know, I have this fear of people who apply such long Tikas on their forehead,” said Siddaramaiah.

A few months back, in another incident, Siddaramaiah was caught on camera outraging the modesty of a woman Congress worker by pulling the Dupatta at an event. Though it was later clarified that he was trying to snatch the mic and her Dupatta got pulled along with it. His menacing and arrogant behaviour towards the woman was widely criticised.

 

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