After Saturday's siege of the Vidhana Soudha, Congress leaders squabbled for biryani where they were detained and even got into a tussle over who'll get the non-veg ones
After Saturday's siege of the Vidhana Soudha, Congress leaders squabbled for biryani where they were detainedu00a0 and even got into a tussle over who'll get the non-veg ones
At the peak of their protest on Saturday, Congressmen were scrambling for non-vegetarian biryani and went home only because they couldn't put up with the mosquitoes, not because the police commissioner apologised.
At least that's what party insiders say happened after the siege of the Vidhana Soudha. And instead of returning home as heroes, Congress leaders had egg on their face.
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Poor show: Cong state president RV Deshpande led the protest fiasco, before he was removed by the police |
While the state working president mooted the idea of laying siege to the Vidhana Soudha, state president R V Deshpande and opposition leader Siddaramiah led from the front.
Many Congress leaders believe Saturday's incident dented the party's image.
"It was a bad idea to lay siege to the Vidhana Soudha, being legislators ourselves," said a Congressu00a0 leader.
"We lost face because of the way we ended the protest."
"People see us as jokers after this incident," said an MLA, adding that he would not support this kind of protest in future.
Food fight
After the Congressmen were arrested, police detained them in CAR (South) grounds in Adugodi.
The protestors' pathetic story took a turn for the worse when they complained about being bundled intou00a0 space meant for sniffer dogs and demanded some good food.
When the food came, somebody from the crowd said it would be an insult to eat government food when they were striking against it. So, there was a hunt for a sponsor. When a trader fromu00a0 Shivajinagar finally bought food for them, there was a fight for non-vegetarian biryani with no takers foru00a0 vegetarian-biryani.
"When I was carrying non-veg biryani for Siddaramiah, a supporter of D K Shivakumar tried to snatch it from me. But, I did not give in," said a Siddaramiah follower.
As a result, Shivakumar had to be satisfied with veg-biryani.
Freedom at midnight
The comedy reached a crescendo when police commissioner S M Bidari informed them that they were free to go at around 5 pm. But the Congressmen felt insulted they refused to go until the chief minister visited them. But chief minister B S Yeddyurappa wouldn't come.
Two rounds of Bidari's persuasion didn't work and the frustrated leaders started calling him names. A miffed commissioner finally left at 11.30 pm, saying, "If you want to go home, please go. Otherwise, you are free to suffer."
When the police left, the Congressman realised that nobody would hear them out and started leaving one by one. At midnight, the leaders called off the strike saying the police commissioner had apologised to them and the State Human Rights Commission would take up the matter.
"In reality, the leaders wanted to leave the spot because mosquitoes were biting," said a source in the Congress. "To save their faces, they said Bidari had apologised but it was not so."
When contacted, Bidari asked: "Why should I appolgise to them? In fact, they should thank me because I let them go without punishment. They had broken the law."
KPCC working president D K Shivakumar refused to admit that party workers were unhappy with the development. "In fact, the protest boosted their morale. We have shown the public that our party is not only active in conducting press conferences but in ground battle too."
On police commissioner S M Bidari's action, he said, "He just trying to impress the chief minister. He wanted to convey that he was loyal to Yeddyurappa and used the occasion for that."
