Karnataka minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan has courted controversy for his racist comment against Union minister HD Kumaraswamy. Retorting strongly, the JD(S) demanded that the Congress government sack Khan from the cabinet for his racist slur at an election rally while addressing the minorities in Ramanagara on Sunday.
The leader issued the remark while talking about Channapatna Congress candidate CP Yogeeshwara who had joined BJP but came back to the Congress recently.
“Due to some differences in our party (Congress), he contested as an independent. He had no option but to join the BJP. He was not ready to join the JD(S) because ‘Kaaliya Kumaraswamy’ was more dangerous than the BJP. Now he (Yogeeshwara) has come back home,” the state minister said. Kaaliya” is a racist slur for dark-complexioned people.
Yogeeshwara is contesting the Channapatna assembly bypoll against Mr Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy who is contesting as an NDA candidate on the JD(S) ticket. JD(S) termed Khan’s remark “racist” and sought to know the colour of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, ministers HC Mahadevappa, Satish Jarakiholi, Priyank Kharge and KH Muniyappa.
Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijijy also condemned Mr Khan’s remark. “I strongly deplore Congress Minister Zameer Ahmed calling the Union Minister & Ex CM of Karnataka Sh. Kumaraswamy as ‘Kaalia Kumaraswamy’. This is a racist remark, the same as Rahul Gandhi’s adviser calling South Indians look like Africans, North East as Chinese, North Indians as Arabs,” he posted on ‘X’.
Later, clarifying his remarks, Khan said he never intended to hurt Kumaraswamy and added Kumaraswamy used to call him ‘Kulla’ (dwarf). Further, the state minister said he has been addressing the union minister as ‘Kariyanna’ (black brother).Khan even called Kumaraswamy’s father and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda his ‘political guru.’
“I never uttered any derogatory thing. I always called Kumaraswamy as Kariyanna (black brother). The same thing I said in Urdu. That’s it,” he said. This is not the first time Khan has commented on Kumaraswamy’s skin colour. Three years ago, during a speech in Bidar, the minister had said, “I’m short, and God made me short. God made him dark, so he is kala (black). If I called a fair person black, that would be wrong. But black will remain black, won’t it?”