Bangalore: Aged 103, DG Thimmegowda gracefully accepted felicitations as Karnataka Legislative Assembly marked its 60th anniversary at a special function.
Thimmegowda from Tiptur was feted along with four others -- U M Madappa (Chamarajanagar), Mulka Govinda Reddy (Chitradurga), Vasanatha Rao L Patil (Chikkodi Raibagh) and Ambadas Rao (Yadgir) -- who were members of the first Assembly constituted on this day in 1952.
Members of the Assembly, Legislative Council, former Chief Ministers and ex-Speakers who were present at the function in the Assembly hall extended their greetings as Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Siddaramaiah, garlanded them and presented them mementoes.
Former Chief Ministers M Veerappa Moily, N Dharam Singh, H D Kumaraswamy and B S Yeddyurappa were at hand, as also former Speakers B G Banakar, V S Koujalagi, M V Venkatappa and Krishna during the two-hour function.
Time for celebrations and introspection were the key take-away from the proceedings, presided over by Governor H R Bhardwaj, while former MLA and current Lok Sabha member D B Chandre Gowda spoke about his experience as an Assembly member as also the Speaker and shared his thoughts.
Delivering the key-note address, former Chief Justice of India, Justice (Retd) M N Venkatachaliah, said the compulsions of coalition politics have served to erode some fundamental conception of the Westminster model of Parliamentary democracy including an erosion of the authority of the Chief Ministers and the Prime Minister.
PTI
