Ours is a humane Hindutva, says Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah

BENGALURU: Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, on Monday, hit out at Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s remarks on his remark that the former called himself a Hindu only close to the elections.

Addressing a rally in Udupi, Siddaramaiah said: “Yogi Adityanath criticised me saying Siddaramaiah calls himself a Hindu when elections come close. Yes I am a Hindu. The BJP does not have trademark on Hindus. We do not need to learn from the B JP about Hinduism.”

“However, ours is a humane Hindutva,” the CM said. Accusing Adityanath of being a follower of Nathuram God se, Sidd ar a mai ah said he had no need to learn from the former.

He invoked Swami Vivekananda’s teachings to retort to Yogi’s comments. “[Adityanath] said if Siddaramaiah is a Hindu let him ban cow slaughter. I want to ask him to please read or at least learn about Swami Vivekananda. He said you cannot be a proponent of Hindutva by basing it on the food one eats. In our minds and deeds there should be Hindutva. That Hindutva should be humane and only then can you be a proponent of Hindutva,” he said.

The Karnataka chief minister asked Adityanath to focus on Uttar Pradesh, where he said there was “jungle raj” in which where children were dying of malnourishment.

“I wantto give Adityanath one suggestion. If you want to know about Karnataka, look at the rice we give people under the Anna Bhagya scheme, the milk and mid-day meals we give children, the nutritious meals we give around 10 lakh women under the Mathru Poorna scheme,” he said.