Madikeri (Karnataka): Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman lost her cool with the Karnataka minister Sa Ra Mahesh over her itinerary during a visit to the flood-hit Kodagu district. The entire episode took place in the presence of officials and the media at the district commissioner's office here. Sitharaman was interacting with a group of affected people here when Mashesh, the district in-charge minister, told her that officials were waiting for her for a review meeting and they have to go for rehabilitation work. He said she can first address the officials to which Sitharaman too agreed sarcastically.
Sitharaman snapped that she was only going by the minute-by-minute programme drawn up for her visit and she had been following the minister in-charge and the itinerary. “I follow the minister in charge. Central minister follows the minister in charge here. Unbelievable! You have a list of minute-to-minute for me to follow...I am doing as per your schedule,” she said. Sitharaman, Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, then sought to know how many of the officials were from the field taking care of the rehabilitation work and said she did not want the work to be upset.
