BJP ridicules Shivakumar for holding meeting of heads of academies at KPCC office

The BJP has taken serious exception to Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who is also the KPCC president, holding a meeting of the presidents of various academies at the KPCC office

The BJP has taken serious exception to Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who is also the KPCC president, holding a meeting of the presidents of various academies at the KPCC office, as against the tradition of holding them in either the State Secretariat or government offices. 

In a release here, BJP leader and former Kannada and Culture Minister V. Sunil Kumar described the episode in which Mr. Shivakumar reportedly advised them on their behaviour as an insult to the literary and cultural field. 

Observing that such an incident of holding the meeting in a party office had never taken place earlier, he described it as “unprecedented”. He alleged that the government, which had turned officials into its servants, was now trying to dictate terms to writers and scholars too. 

He said it was a matter of disgust that those who wanted the creative field to be insulated from politics themselves were part of such a meeting convened by Mr. Shivakumar.

In fact, the controversial Youth Congress leader, Mohammed Haris Nalapad, too attended such the meeting, in which Mr. Shivakumar reportedly told them that such posts would be a stepping stone to politics, Mr. Sunil Kumar alleged.