Badami, Karnataka: Former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition in Assembly Siddaramaiah turned furious after one of his followers tried to felicitate him with Saffron Pete(turban used to felicitate in Karnataka) in Badami on Tuesday.
The incident occured when Siddaramaiah was the chief guest for the inaugural ceremony of a new building of Kataraki Gram Panchayat. When one of the followers tried to facilitate Siddaramaiah with saffron shawl, he refused and threw it away.
This behaviour from former chief minister stunned all the gathered people during the inaugural ceremony in Kataraki village. The man who had tried to facilitate with saffron shawl disappeared from the crowd within minutes of the incident occurred.
Interestingly, when another follower rushed to present sheep to Siddaramaiah, he blessed the follower but refused to accept it.
Siddaramaiah was on two-day tour to Badami from Monday. He had laid foundation stone for the various development works in the segment on Tuesday.
It may be noted that, a couple of years ago, when a priest tried to put kesari tilak in one of the functions in Badami, he had refused and had lashed out at preist. This has attracted lot of criticism by the saffron party leaders.
Siddaramaiah is an atheist and has been a staunch critic of RSS, its symbolism and their divisive politics. Since saffron is the color that has been appropriated by RSS and BJP as a secular leader, Siddaramaiah naturally did not want to be associated with the color.
