PM comment: BJP MLC hits out at SL Bhyrappa

MYSURU: Days after writer S L Bhyrappa was selected for the Padma Bhushan award, disgruntled BJP MLC AH Vishwanath, said the novelist got the award because of his writing, and not because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Bhyrappa had claimed that he got the award as Modi is the PM and otherwise, he would not have received it.

On Saturday, Vishwanath said: “I don’t know what Prime Minister Modi’s age was when Bhyrappa started writing. Your statements like ‘Modi gave me the award and he should continue as the PM for many more years’, etc, lowered the dignity of the award and of the writer.”

“His contribution to the literary world brought Bhyrappa the Padma Bhushan. There is no need for him to engage in appeasement. I am sorry for stating this,” he said. “Bhyrappa will also get the Jnanpith Award, but he must wait. You (Bhyrappa) should not start praising all for the Jnanpith,” he said, adding: “Whatever it might be, you’re a big writer of this Kannada world. You are from Mysuru, and I will congratulate you.”

The MLC also heaped praise on former CM SM Krishna, who got the Padma Vibhushan. “He made Karnataka a vibrant state. He created such an atmosphere that people from across the globe look at Bengaluru. Krishna’s vibrant Karnataka concept was the model for the Vibrant Gujarat model of PM Modi. He introduced India to the world through his contribution to IT, BT, and science,” he said.

Vishwanath also congratulated Infosys Foundation chief Sudha Murty and other Padma awardees.

The MLC endorsed the demand for naming the Mysuru-Bengaluru Expressway after Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar. Vishwanath criticised CM Basavaraj Bommai for snatching the mike from the Kaginele seer at a programme in Bengaluru when the latter tried to highlight flooding in the state capital.