Siddaramaiah humiliates' Mandya top cop, BJP protests

Bengaluru: The BJP on Friday strongly objected to  CM Siddaramaiah taking the Mandya Superintendent of Police to task in public for not stopping the party’s protest  against him in the district Thursday afternoon. Deploring that local television microphones had picked up Mr Siddaramaiah calling the SP “useless” at a function where he summoned him to the dais to tell him off, BJP spokesman and MLA, Suresh Kumar came down hard on the CM for humiliating the senior police officer in public. “This incident has left the SP vulnerable  and could trigger insubordination against him in the district. The Chief Minister has by his arrogance put the officer in a position where he will find it extremely difficult to command the respect of his juniors,” he regretted.

While the BJP did not condone  lapses by the  police, it believed they  must be discreetly pulled up and not in public, he said, speaking to reporters here. Listing the sufferings of the police and other officers in the state   Mr Kumar charged that the Udupi deputy commissioner and assistant commissioner were threatened by the sand mafia with the blessings of local Congress leaders and  recalled that former DySP, Anupama Shenoy was hounded for taking action against the liquor mafia. Also a former Mysuru DC  Shikha was attacked by a close associate of the CM, he noted.  “In all these episodes the government remained a mute spectator and took no action against the culprits.  With Congress party workers and the Chief Minister himself intimidating and insulting  bureaucrats and police officers there is growing discontentment in their ranks,” he warned.