Kalaburagi: No presents, thank you! At least that's what Chief Minister Siddaramaiah seemed to be saying when he returned a gold medal and silver that he was gifted on Saturday morning. Once bitten, twice shy! And with less than a year to go before he goes back to the people, he was not going to give the opposition another Hublot to beat him up with!
Mr Siddaramaiah who was here to inaugurate the newly set up Hemaraddi Mallamma Chair at the Gulbarga University, was presented a gold medal by the Minister for Higher Education Basavaraj Rayaraddi for presenting “one of the best budgets." While showering praise on the CM for "sagaciously" allocating Rs 18,000 cr. for irrigation projects and Rs 20,000 cr. for education, Mr Rayaraddi, also gifted the CM with a silver memento
Even as Mr Rayaraddi put the gold medal around Mr Siddaramaiah’s neck , the latter looking quite bemused, asked the Minister and Vice-Chancellor Dr Niranjan, why the medal was presented to him.
In his address, he brought up the embarrassment he had to face for having received a watch from one of his friends. “These days it’s not advisable to receive any sort of gifts from anybody. Remember the watch that was presented to me by a friend of mine! It was blown out of proportion and I was accused of having forsaken my socialist background after becoming the Chief Minister.."
‘I don’t want to face any more such situations now. That’s why I have decided to hand the Gold Medal and a silver memento presented to me, back to the Gulbarga University to keep in their museum, " he said. The audience may have sniggered. But the CM wasn’t going to have another diamond studded Hublot explode from under him!
