Karnataka: Day after row over Nirmala Sitharaman's itinerary for flood-hit Kodagu visit, Defence Ministry gives detailed account

Twitter/ @DefenceMinIndia

A day after reports surfaced of a heated argument between Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Karnataka Minister Sa Ra Mahesh over her itinerary during a visit to the flood-hit Kodagu district, the Ministry on Saturday released a statement clarifying and giving a detailed account of the sequence of events in the state.

In the statement, the Ministry said the tour program of the Sitharaman was finalised by the district administration of Kodagu in consultation with the public representatives and on the request of the district administration, an interaction with the veterans was added to the schedule. This program was approved and circulated to all concerned two days prior to Sitharaman's arrival.  

On completion of the field visits, the Defence Minister was interacting with ex-servicemen who had been adversely affected by the floods, when the district in-charge minister objected and insisted that meeting with the officials be conducted first. When Sitharaman clarified that the welfare of ex-servicemen was an essential part of the Ministry of Defence and the same was scheduled in the program the district minister insisted that she should "immediately stop the interaction and proceed to the meeting with the officials". 

According to the statement, Sitharaman immediately halted the meeting and proceeded to the venue of the meeting with the officials. She then heard the grievances of the waiting ex-servicemen. In spite of district administration finalising the program and Sitharaman following the same in its entirety, "it is unfortunate that the minister behaved the way he did", added the statement.

The statement further added that "there has been gross misrepresentation with regard to the use of the term ‘parivar’ by the defence minister during the press conference. One of the four departments of the Ministry of Defence is the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare and in that context, it was stated that all ex-servicemen are part of the MoD 'parivar'".

After the defence minister visited the flood-hit Kodagu district, reports surfaced that Sitharaman got angry with the district in-charge minister during the flood review being taken with the district administration. Several reports quoted the district in-charge minister making certain personal remarks against Sitharaman.