Kageri thanks members of the House for unanimously electing him

Team Udayavani, Jul 31, 2019, 6:25 PM IST

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Bengaluru: Senior BJP leader and six time MLA Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri on assuming office as the Speaker thanked the members of the House for unanimously electing him.

Defending his Sangh Parivar links,over which some members passed some comments while congratulating him on becoming the Speaker, Kageri said he was a swayamsevak and was in RSS.

“I’m what I’m today is because what I have learned from the sangh…” he said.

Stating that everyone has a right to believe in their ideology, Kageri said “Some people have spoken about Hindutva ideology of the organization I come from.

The Supreme Court itself had said Hindutva is a way of life…. it is a symbol of our nationality.”

Kageri, MLA from Sirsi, who had filed his nomination on Tuesday, was elected unopposed, as Congress and JD(S) did not field a candidate against him.

Kageri, a staunch RSS man, who began his career with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, was a surprise pick as former Speaker K G Bopaiah’s name was doing the rounds.

Earlier during his intervention, while congratulating Kageri and expressing trust in him to keep up the democratic values, Congress leader Siddaramaiah, pointing at Kageri’s RPT Kageri’s association with RSS and ABVP said, “you will not have that infection now, from here on you are non-partisan.”

Ramesh Kumar too spoke about RSS’ belief in “Manuwada”, which was in contrast to Ambedkar’s philosphopy of inclusiveness, which is also enshrined in the Constitution.

Kumar however, also expressed appreciation and admiration anbout the simplicity and conduct of RSS workers,irrespective of his difference with their ideology.

Several BJP leaders like Jagadish Shettar and K S Eshwarappa defended RSS and its ideology, stating that it completely believes in inclusiveness and unity, while efforts are on for a long time now to project it otherwise, limiting itto Hindus, especially upper castes.

Yediyurappa, during his intervention, thanked opposition parties for their cooperation in electing Kageri unanimously.

He also praised Kageri’s “clean image” and said his conduct and experience would help him in running the House smoothly.