The former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Thursday accused the Congress government of corruption and said he was ready to give a pen drive that he claimed had proof of corruption in transfers to all members of the Legislative Assembly if Speaker U.T. Khader permits.
During the Zero Hour, Mr. Kumaraswamy and Energy Minister K.J. George were involved in a verbal duel over the former’s allegations of corruption in transfers in the Energy Department.
When Mr. Kumaraswamy sought the resignation of Agriculture Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy from the Cabinet to ensure a fair investigation against him in the case of a suicide attempt by KSRTC bus driver-cum-conductor H.R. Jagadish, Mr. George said the JD(S) leader had levelled baseless charges against him when he was the Minister for the suicides of Dy.SP M.K. Ganapathy and IAS officer D.K. Ravi. He tendered his resignation and CBI probes were ordered. But he received a clean chit in both the cases, Mr. George recalled.
Minister for Medium and Major Industries M.B. Patil too supported Mr. George and said there was no substance in the Opposition’s allegations about corruption in the government.
Irked over the Minister’s remark, Mr. Kumarawamy dared the government to file a case against him for making false charges. “If the Speaker grants permission, I will circulate the pen drive to all 224 members of the House,‘‘ the JD(S) leader said.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kumaraswamy had said he had the pen drive with evidence about corruption in the Congress government and that he would release it “at the right time”. BJP members said there was rampant corruption in the government even before the completion of its two months in office.
