‘How can you defend a person who has hurled casteist slurs on your community?’

Bengaluru: Former MP DK Suresh on Sunday questioned Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy and Leader of Opposition for supporting MLA Munirathna who hurled casteist slurs on Vokkaliga community and its women.

Speaking to reporters at his Sadashivanagar residence, he said, “Don’t politicise the issue. Please clarify if your party’s stand is the same as yours? How would you have reacted if a Congress leader had spoken like this?”

“Some leaders and Leader of the Opposition are trying to give it a political hue. Is it right to do so when the evidence is so crystal clear. His slurs against women are unacceptable and so are his words against the Vokkaliga community,” he said.

Asked about R Ashoka’s statement that arrest of Munirathna was politically motivated, he said, “No one asked him to make such statements against women and a community. The police will investigate the case and the truth will come out.”

Asked about Munirathna bringing out DK Suresh’s name in a video released before the arrest, he said, “As you (the media) is aware, I don’t get involved in things like these. I have stayed away from politics after the verdict of the people.”

“We have left the cinema production and direction to BJP and JDS. They know that they can’t come up in politics if they don’t think of DK brothers. I have accepted the verdict of the people and will respond at an appropriate time,” he said.