Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Feb 17: MLA Vedavyas Kamath sharply hit back at minister Dinesh Gundu Rao's jab calling him a 'pawn', declaring, "I am not a pawn, but a guardian of my constituency."

At a press conference here on Monday, February 17, Kamath accused the Congress of turning the inauguration of the Mangaladevi primary health centre into a political spectacle. "The mayor and senior officials inaugurated the centre, but the Congress could not stand it, so they staged a re-inauguration to show their true colours," he said, calling it an insult to the Scheduled Community.

Kamath slammed the Congress for evicting patients and locking the centre within four days, branding it a new low in political gamesmanship. He challenged the Congress to take responsibility for the fiasco instead of blaming the legislators. "If your government is so clean, let us investigate who was involved in this mess," he added.

Kamath also took a dig at Congress for violating protocol by inviting former MLAs and party workers to the re-inauguration. "If that’s acceptable, should we bring back former district ministers for every event?" he quipped.

The press conference was attended by Ramesh Kandettu, Premanand Shetty, deputy mayor Bhanu Mathi, MCC member Purnima, and Ravishankar Mijar.