CM Siddaramaiah to Yogi Adityanath: Congress's not demonic Hindutva

Udupi: In a no holds barred attack on  Uttar Pradesh CM  Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday took him on for his comment that he was pandering to Hindus only with an eye on the coming state elections. Asserting  he followed the Hindutva of humanity and not a demonic version of it, he responded to every charge made by his UP counterpart with biting comments of his own.

Mr Siddaramaiah, who was in Udupi district to inaugurate various development projects said at a programme in Byndoor, "Yogi Adityanath, the biggest communal leader of the country,  was here twice on the invitation of BJP leaders.

His speech was filled with Hindutva talk and he alleged that I was speaking about Hindus only during elections. Let me make it clear. I am a Hindu and I don’t need to learn from the BJP. They have not taken  Hinduism on a lease. Ours is Hindutva  with humanity and not a demonic Hindutva." He went on, “Yogi is a follower of Godse. Should we learn Hindutva lessons from him? Yogi asks us to ban cattle slaughter in the state. But he should recall that Swami Vivekananda had  said Hindutva was not decided by the food we ate but by our thoughts and deeds. He had called for Hindutva with humanity.”

Taking on the UP Chief Minister some more, he added, "When he was in the state last time he alleged that we were celebrating Tipu Jayanthi and not Hanuman Jayanthi. We celebrate jayanthis of about 26 great personalities of whom Tipu is one. I am a son of the soil of Karnataka and  I know what to celebrate. I don’t need to learn learn from him.

The Chief Minister went on disparagingly,  "He (Yogi) is from UP where there is jungle raj and people die due to malnourishment. We have programmes like Annabhayga, Ksheera Bhagya, Mid Day meals, and Matrupoorna for women. He needs to learn from us."