BANGALORE: Two JD(S) leaders - H D Kumaraswamy and S Bangarappa, also former chief ministers - have urged Home Minister R Ashok to step down on moral grounds after the Lokayukta police filed a first information report (FIR) against him. “The court has directed the police to file an FIR only after making a prima facie case. Hence, it is not correct for Ashok to remain in the Cabinet,” the two addressed the media thus here on Wednesday. Bangarappa said that the police will find it difficult to question Ashok as he heads the home department, urging him to resign until completion of the probe. “Moreover, there will always be a suspicion about the fairness of the probe given that the accused who is in power can always get records tampered or bring pressure,” Bangarappa added. The two also lambasted the state government for its multi-frontal failure. “Save for infighting and one-upmanship in the party and the government, no developmental activities are taking place. The BJP has forfeited its right to rule as none of its promises made in the manifesto have been implemented,” the two added. On the judicial remand of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, Bangarappa said, “It is not a matter of happiness that a political leader, that too a former CM, is in jail, no matter what political differences are.” Kumaraswamy said that he wanted to speak to senior BJP leader L K Advani when his Jan Chetna Yatra arrives in the city, on corruption of state ministers in the state government, if he wants to be objective and dispassionate. “First of all, the yatra has no moral grounds to enter Karnataka with corruption and maladminstration being rampant in the first-ever BJP government,” Kumaraswamy said. ‘UKP FIR IS LIKE FLOGGING A DEAD HORSE’ State JD (S) president H D Kumaraswamy has said that the decision of the CID to file an FIR on the allegations of irregularities in awarding contracts in Upper Krishna Project is an attempt to fix former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. "Many leaders and officers in the past have had made numerous attempts to nail my father on one issue or the other but have failed. This attempt of DGP CID Shankar Bidari also will meet with the same fate. We are not at all worried," Kumaraswamy told Express. According to him, the issue raised by the government was an old one which Gowda has replied in the past but the BJP establishment had once again raked it up. "There is no use flogging a dead horse," Kumaraswamy said. He said that it was an yet another attempt to defame his family and the timing of filing the FIR — when he was exonerated recently in two courts when former CM B S Yeddyurappa is in jail— is the proof.
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