Mangaluru: Congress legal cell president and senior advocate Manoraj Rajeev has strongly defended Karnataka Assembly Speaker U.T. Khader, terming the BJP’s corruption charges against him “illegal, unfounded and politically motivated.”
The opposition BJP has accused Speaker Khader of irregularities in the name of legislative administration reforms and development works. BJP MP Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri alleged that Khader, with the consent of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, had approved purchases at double the actual price, bypassing the Finance Department’s objections.
The allegations, made by Kageri at a press conference, have sparked a major political controversy in the coastal region, with several BJP leaders joining the attack against the Speaker.
Responding to the charges, Manoraj Rajeev criticised the BJP’s stance, calling it a “hydra-headed drama” to deflect attention from the party’s own record. “The BJP, which was embroiled in multiple scams during its tenure, is now trying to portray the Congress government as corrupt,” he said.
Rajeev accused the BJP of “failing both in governance and in opposition,” saying the party’s MLAs had “lost credibility even in making allegations.” Taking aim at MLA Bharath Shetty and MP Kageri, he remarked, “If they truly believed there was wrongdoing, they should have questioned the Speaker’s actions during the implementation phase, not after the projects were completed.”
He also questioned the logic behind the BJP’s claims: “If the Speaker developed MLA residences, did the BJP MLAs not know when the work started? If any illegality existed, why didn’t they stop it then? They had every opportunity to block the tender or halt the payment, yet they chose silence.”
Calling the current allegations a “deliberate attempt to malign the Speaker’s office,” Rajeev said that demanding a judicial probe by a sitting judge amounted to “disrespecting the Speaker’s constitutional position.”
Rajeev further noted that if the BJP genuinely believed corruption had occurred, its legislators could have raised the issue on the Assembly floor or even moved a no-confidence motion. “By choosing not to do so and instead levelling false accusations outside the House, they have undermined the privileges of the Speaker,” he said.
The legal expert has now advised Congress MLAs to file a Privilege Motion complaint against the BJP for “illegally attempting to defame and deprive the Speaker of his constitutional rights.”