Ramesh, Sudhakar spat turns ugly again

BENGALURU: The Assembly on Wednesday saw  heated arguments between former Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar (Congress) and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar. Kumar later apologised. During the March session too, they had clashed.The ugly spat started when minister Sudhakar was replying in the House on behalf of the State government on the Opposition leaders’ allegations of irregularities in procuring medical equipment to treat Covid-19 patients. At one point, Ramesh Kumar said, “You (Sudhakar) are accepting that the State government has paid more for the equipment.”

Kumar used  ‘unparliamentary’ words that made the ruling BJP members angry. Sudhakar even started addressing Kumar, a senior Congress leader, in the singular. He said this was not for the first time that Kumar was using such unparliamentary words. “He did it during the session in March. He was the Speaker. How can he use such unparliamentary words?’’ Jagadish Shettar and K S Eshwarappa demanded Kumar’s apology.Speaker Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri said, “I don’t know if this word is parliamentary or not. However, I personally feel this language can’t be used.”Later, Kageri said similar words have been included in the unparliamentary list. “The word used by Kumar is unparliamentary and the same has to be removed from the record,’’ he said. Ramesh Kumar said, “I only said he (Sudhakar) is defending the blunder.”