Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday slammed Congress leader Siddaramaiah for allegedly misbehaving with a woman in Karnataka's Mysuru.
Javadekar questioned what action Congress president Rahul Gandhi took against his party leader and former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah after he was caught on camera misbehaving with a woman here on Monday.
"Rahul Gandhi should tell what he will do with him. This is a crime, the way he abused her. That's how they see women; they have not changed since the tandoor case. They only respect women from one family," Javadekar said.
In a video, Siddaramaiah can be seen furiously snatching a mike from a woman, in the process of which her dupatta also fell. The woman was apparently raising some issue, which agitated the Congress leader.
An infuriated Siddaramaiah then asked the woman to sit down, while the latter kept arguing. Few second later, when the woman again stood up to speak up, the former chief minister tapped her on the shoulder, asking her to sit down.
The incident reportedly occurred during a public meeting at the districts' Varuna area.
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However, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao said Siddaramaiah's actions were "unintentional".
"Sometimes when people start asking questions in a rough way and after hearing them out when they don't stop, you want to pull the mic. When pulling the mic the dupatta came along with. There was no such intention," said Rao.
Siddaramaiah, who is the former chief minister of Karnataka, is currently the leader of Congress Legislative Party (CLP). Congress and JDS alliance are in power in Karnataka with JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy as the chief minister.