Digvijaya Singh hints at George's re-induction into Cabinet

Hyderabad, Sep 21: The Congress leadership believes there was not “enough reason” for former Karnataka Minister K J George to resign, senior party leader Digvijaya Singh said on Tuesday, hinting at his (George's) likely return to the Siddaramaiah Cabinet.

“As far as we are concerned, merely a complaint or statement by a person who commits suicide is not enough reason for anyone to resign,” the party general secretary in charge of Karnataka affairs said here.

Singh was asked if the Congress leadership has approved the reinstatement of George in the wake of Karnataka CID, earlier this month, giving a clean chit to him and two senior police officers in connection with the suicide of DySP M K Ganapathi. “There was no reason for him (George) to resign in the first place, but on his personal thing he resigned. As far as the high command is concerned, there is nothing against George,” he said.

Asked if the Party high command had given green signal for the re-entry of George, Singh said, “That is for the chief minister to decide. It is the prerogative of the chief minister.

We do not interfere in these matters.” George had resigned on July 18, after a court directed the police to register an FIR against him and two police officers in connection with the matter. On the criticism in some quarters that Siddaramaiah did not handle the situation well on September 12, when Bengaluru witnessed large-scale violence over the Cauvery water-sharing row with Tamil Nadu, Singh admitted that the government was “not very stringent” that day.

“The agitation is by farmers. No government, when it's a sensitive issue of water, can be seen to be aggressively taking action against genuine demands of farmers. So, the Karnataka government was sort of not very stringent on the first day. So, some violence did happen. The second day onwards, it was controlled,” he said.