Southern States - Karnataka   

Cong. leader beaten up at meeting

By Our Staff Correspondent

Mysore Sept. 20. The all-party condolence meeting held today to mourn the death of farmer, Guruswamy, witnessed ugly scenes when the former district Congress President, Shankare Gowda, was assaulted by a group when he interrupted the speech of the JD(S) leader and former Deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah.

Mr. Shankaregowda tried to flee the scene and rushed to his car for safety, but a section of the JD(S) activists chased him from the dais and threw stones at him. Some irate workers hurled chairs at him.

The leaders remained a mute witness to the drama as their plea to the workers went in vain. The former Congress MLA, Harshakumar Gowda, quietly left the scene.

The incident took place when the "Kabini Chalo" and "KRS Chalo" programmes organised by the Cauvery Kriya Samithi were called off and instead a condolence meeting was organised at Town Hall to mourn the death of Guruswamy who drowned in Kabini to protest the release of water to Tamil Nadu. Leaders of all parties attended the meeting.

It all began when Mr. Siddaramaiah lambasted the Congress for its inept handling of the Cauvery issue and criticised the Chief Minister, S.M.Krishna, for failing to protect the interests of Karnataka. At this, Mr. Shankare Gowda reminded him that the former Prime Minister and JD (S) leader, H.D.Deve Gowda, had stated that water should be released to Tamil Nadu in deference to the directives of the Supreme Court and hence it was not fair to criticise the Congress alone for this.

Angered by this, the JD(S) workers rushed towards the dais in an aggressive manner. Sensing trouble, Shankaregowda tried to flee from the dais but was overpowered and thrashed. His shirt was torn and he was chased by the group.

Mr. Siddaramaiah, who continued his speech, said that in a democracy people were bound to differ and said: "If Mr. Deve Gowda has supported the release of water, then he too is at fault."

Mr. Siddaramaiah held the Congress responsible for the death of Guruswamy and said the decision not to release water to Tamil Nadu had come too late.He criticised the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J.Jayalalithaa, for belittling farmers' struggle and for her "intemperate remarks" making light of Guruswamy's suicide.

Nearly 5,000 farmers attended the meeting. The MLAs, A.R.Krishnamurthy, H.S.Mahadeva Prasad, H.S.Shankarlingegowda, V.Somanna, Papanna, Basavaraju, and Ramdas, and the Mysore Chamarajanagar Raitha Hitarakshana Samithi President, Mallesh, were present.

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