Unhappy Ugrappa roars in House, Anjaneya takes a hit

Bengaluru: Not finding a berth in the state Cabinet during the recent reshuffle appears to have  upset Congress MLC, V S Ugrappa, a diehard supporter of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

In a clearly belligerent mood in the Legislative Council on Monday, the MLC put Social Welfare Minister,  H.Anjaneya on the spot a few times during question hour in the presence of Mr Siddaramaiah, embarrassing both him and his government.

When replying to Congress member, Motamma, Mr. Anjaneya assured that the government was committed to providing burial grounds for Dalits in every village and his department had directed the deputy commissioners to identify the land necessary, Mr. Ugrappa intervened to argue that going by Article 17 of the Constitution  providing separate burial grounds for Dalits amounted to discrimination. “Does the Constitution allow the government to have separate burial grounds for Dalits?" he asked pointedly, leaving the minister speechless and looking to the Chief Minister for help.

Stranger still, it was  BJP members, K.B. Shanappa and D.S. Veeraiah, who objected to Mr Ugrappa's remarks , arguing that burial grounds were necessary for Dalits.

But the MLC had not finished yet. He later pulled up Mr.Anjaneya for giving the “wrong answer” to the House on installation of CCTV cameras in hostels runs by his department.

At another point he wanted the minister to explain what criteria the government adopted to declare a particular caste as backward class.  

A visibly irritated Mr. Anjaneya finally shot back saying, " When Mr Ugrappa was appointed to the Council, we thought he would block the attacks of opposition leader, K.S. Eshwarappa on the state government. But instead he is causing the ruling party embarrassment and making the job of the opposition easier!"