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Karnataka Today newsletter: Deve Gowda takes exception to HDK sporting saffron flag, and more

Janata Dal (Secular) supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda told presspersons in Delhi on February 2 that his son and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy should not have sported the saffron shawl. “In any joint programme, as alliance partner, we should sport ours (green shawl) and they will wear theirs,” he said.

In a recent protest at Keragodu in Mandya district by pro-Hindutva outfits against the removal of a flag with an image of Lord Hanuman, Mr. Kumaraswamy wore a saffron shawl in support, raising eyebrows as well as criticism. The KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar had remarked then that the JD(S) could merge with the BJP.

CM Siddaramaiah said that BJP is engaging in unethical practices, like poaching of opposition MLAs, because the party is desperate for power. “BJP has been unable to gain the people’s trust in Karnataka despite coming to power several times. The reasons are its anti-people governance, and forming governments by poaching MLAs. Karnataka voters have never favoured the BJP, will never do so in future,” he said in Muddebihal in Vijayapura district on February 2.

Reacting to a claim by former CM Jagadish Shettar that several Congress MLAs were pestering him to induct them in the BJP, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that purchasing MLAs ‘in the name of Operation Lotus’ was the only thing that that the BJP knows.

An event is being held in Mysuru on February 3 to commemorate 50 years of the late Kannada poet Kuvempu’s two iconic speeches — Samskruti Krantige Kahale Nandi (a clarion call for cultural revolution) and Vichara Krantige Ahwana (an invitation to revolution of reason) — urging people to shun ignorance and sectarianism, and embrace reason.

The speeches were delivered by Kuvempu in 1944 in the Centenary Hall of Maharaja College in Mysuru, which is the venue of the programme organised on February 3.

Mangaluru International Airport is all set to have direct flight connectivity to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia from April. The flight to Jeddah will take connectivity from Mangaluru International Airport to eight international destinations. Air India Express has announced the weekly flight that will operate every Wednesday starting April 3.