Bengaluru: Tempers were frayed once again over diarygate in the Legislative Council on Monday with BJP members staging a protest in the well of the House over an MLC being denied an opportunity to clarify the contents of his diary that Congress members alleged had details of payments made to BJP national leaders during saffron party rule in the state.
The issue came up in the House as leader of the opposition K.S. Eshwarappa accused the government of succumbing to the mining lobby by delaying the declaration of the Kappatagudda hills in Gadag district a protected area. When Congress members attacked the BJP in turn, claiming it had allowed the Obalapuram Mining Company to exploit the natural resources of Ballari district, causing a loss of crores to the government, MLCs of the saffron party hit back by accusing the state Congress of making pay-offs to its high command as mentioned in a diary.
Unwilling to back down, Congress MLCs wanted to know if they were talking of the Sahara and other diaries that reportedly contained details of payments made to BJP national leaders. When Congress leader, V S Ugrappa and Narayanaswamy recalled that a former CM of the party had even marked time in jail over corruption, Mr Eshwarappa shot back that a late Congress Prime Minister too had gone to jail on corruption charges.
Soon pandemonium broke out with BJP members rushing to the well of the House in protest. Intervening, floor leader and Home Minister Dr G. Parameshwar appealed to both sides to keep off the subject and deputy chairman, Maritibbe Gowda, expunged the names of the BJP MLC whose diary was discussed and of the party’s former Chief Minister and of the late Congress Prime Minister from the day’s proceedings. This seemed to satisfy the BJP members, who responded by calling off their dharna.
BJP withdraws protest
BJP leaders, who stalled proceedings in the Assembly over the diary purportedly belonging to Congress MLC K Govindaraju, withdrew their protest on Monday but vowed to take the issue to the people.
Soon after the House met on Monday, leader of Opposition, Jagadish Shettar, requested the Speaker to allow a discussion on the diary, as he had permitted one earlier. However, Mr Koliwad said he had withdrawn the permission after a point of order raised by law minister T B Jayachandra. When Mr Shettar said the government was rattled as names of many ministers would come to light during the debate, Congress leaders objected. They countered Mr Shettar, citing the previous government, and how the BJP had elected three CMs with one of them going to prison on charges of corruption.
