Bengaluru: The state Congress has targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not attending Siddaganga Matt seer Shivakumara Swamy’s funeral.
Speaking to media on Wednesday, January 23, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said, “Swamiji (Sri Shivakumara Swami of Siddaganga Matt) served humanity. PM should have attended the cremation ceremony. I am not saying where else PM should have gone. I am not a small-minded person. If PM would have attended, it would have raised the level of his office.”
Lakhs of devotees offered their tributes to Shivakumara Swamy, whose body was kept for display at the ‘Gosala Siddeshwara Vedike’ at the matt throughout the day.
Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had come to Tumakuru to pay last respects on behalf of Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday, January 22.
Parameshwara also took to Twitter questioning PM Modi skipping the funeral. “PM Modi attends celebrity weddings, meets movie stars but skips the funeral of our NaDed?Duva devaru, who dedicated his life to help the poor and the marginalised. Repeated requests to confer Bharat Ratna on him have gone in vain. Truly well-deserved recipient of Kotler Award,” he tweeted.
Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had recently said that the central government should confer the Bharat Ratna on the seer. On Wednesday, Karnataka Home Minister M B Patil and the official handle of the Karnataka Congress, too, made a fresh appeal that the Siddaganga seer is posthumously conferred with the Bharat Ratna.
“I request CM Shri H. D. Kumaraswamy to make a resubmission of appeal to the PM to award Bharat Ratna to His Holiness Shatayushi Dr. Sri Sri Sri Shivakumara Swamigalu of Siddaganga Mutt.#BharatRatna #SiddagangaSeer #BharatRatna2????????????? @PMOIndia @CMofKarnataka @INCKarnataka,” Patil had tweeted on January 18.
The humanitarian work of Shivakumara Swamy had earned praise in 2006 from then President of India APJ Abdul Kalam when he visited Tumakuru in 2006 during the celebrations of the seer’s 100th birthday.
Siddaganga Mutt seer was the recipient of a doctorate of literature from Karnataka University in 1965, the Karnataka Ratna – the highest civilian honour in the state in 2007, as well as the Padma Bhushan in 2015 by the union government.
