Updated January 28th, 2019 at 19:45 IST
Far from apologising, Siddaramaiah brazens out outrageous behaviour with a woman who dared to question him; tries to play 'sister' card
Five hours after the video went viral, Siddaramaiah has issued his first statement amid the massive backlash. In his tweet, he has called the incident as accidental and claimed to have known the lady for 15 years , saying she is like a sister to him
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Veteran Congress leader and former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has been receiving huge backlash after video showing him misbehaving with a lady in the presence of several other leaders went viral. Hours after facing outrage, Congress's super-CM broke his silence as he issued his first statement in the aftermath. In his statement, Siddaramaiah brazened out his actions of insulting the lady in the video, claiming that he has known the lady for 15 years now and she is 'like a sister to him'.
Far from issuing an apology, the Congress leader took to Twitter and termed the incident wherein he misbehaved with the lady, identified as Jamalar, as 'accidental and unintentional'.
"In a public function that took place in Varuna today, a party worker was speaking for a long time the incident that took place when I tried to stop her is accidental and unintentional. I have known her for 15 years and she is like my sister," reads Siddaramaiah's tweet.
In another statement released by Karnataka Congress on its official Twitter handle, the party claimed that the lady (Jamalar) has also admitted that she knew Siddaramaiah for many years, further putting the onus on her for the incident.
Read the tweet here:
The outrageous and dramatic video footage shows Congress leader Siddaramaiah misbehaving with the woman at the public meeting. In the video, he is seen losing his cool and intimidated the woman after she sought answers to her demand for a hospital. Later the video shows him snatching the mic from the woman's hand who raised allegations against him, leading to his dupatta being pulled off in front of the other leaders. Shockingly, the video does not show Siddaramaiah apologizing to the lady over the incident, but later shows him insulting and shouting at her in the aftermath.
Even as Siddaramaiah claims that the lady is like his 'sister', NCW took cognisance of the video and its chief Rekha Sharma said that the commission will be writing to the Karnataka Police to take strict action against the Congress leader.
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Published January 28th, 2019 at 18:30 IST