Member of Legislative Council A.H. Vishwanath and former MP Pratap Simha on Thursday criticised Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for rebuking the Vijayanagar Deputy Commissioner M.S. Divakar at a public function recently.

Speaking to media persons, Mr. Vishwanath said the Chief Minister has a tendency to address everyone in singular, and this is lapped by his cronies who whistle and clap, especially in public events.

The MLC said how Mr. Siddaramaiah addressed the deputy commissioner was nothing short of humiliation and an affront to the entire bureaucracy.

A Chief Minister who does not recognize a deputy commissioner representing the highest echelons of administration in a district is nothing short of a fool, he said.

He also criticized those who clapped and whistled after the public humiliation of Mr. Divakar and questioned the rationale behind raising slogans praising the Chief Minister. “Immature youngsters behave in such a manner, and the Congress leaders tend to encourage such acts forgetting that the entire bureaucracy may come to loathe the Chief Minister”, Mr. Vishwanath said.

Such demeaning behaviour towards a senior official will have a demoralizing effect on youngsters who wish to pursue civil services like IAS, IPS, etc., and will send wrong signals, he added.

He said it was imperative for the bureaucracy and the executive at the state level to maintain harmonious relationships for smooth administration as it will benefit the public. Otherwise, this could prove to be counter-productive, Mr. Vishwanath warned.

He also castigated the religious heads and other leaders for remaining mute on the occasion and equated it with the silence of the elders when Draupadi was being disrobed in the court of Duryodhana in the epic Mahabharata. Continuing his tirade against Mr. Siddaramaiah, the MLC said his attitude was not befitting his stature as a Chief Minister.

In a separate statement, Mr. Simha also lashed out at the Chief Minister and alleged that during his first tenure as the Chief Minister, his close aide had publicly insulted Ms. Shikha, who was the deputy commissioner of Mysuru at that time. But in his second tenure, Mr. Siddaramaiah himself is meting out insults, said Mr. Simha who also accused the Chief Minister of ‘targeting officials based on their caste’.

Describing the incident as in bad taste, Mr.Simha said the State IAS Officers’ Association should condemn the incident and stand by its colleague.