You cannot react to every barking dog: DVS

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Sadananda Gowda, who wore a smile on his face every day he was in power, for once seemed to lose his cool saying ‘he could not react to every dog which barks at him.’.

Taking a swipe at his detractors, Mr Gowda—who was forced out of power by his predecessor in the CM seat, B.S. Yeddyurappa — quoted a noted industrialist, who had once reportedly said: “In our endeavour to achieve our goals, there will be a lot of dogs on the streets, barking at us. We cannot keep pelting stones at each and every dog which barks at us. At the most, we can carry a pack of biscuits and throw it at them,’’ he said.

Participating in the Vokkaligara Samskrithi Mahasammelana here on Friday, Mr Gowda called for unity among community members and pointed to the sudden outburst of Vokkaliga anger when he was removed from the CM post.

“In a way, the protests boost my morale. People were recognizing the good governance provided by my government. However, efforts were made to give a casteist touch to the Vokkaliga protest, which was not true,’’ he said.

Taking a dig at the growing clamour for representation for leaders of all communities and attempts to divide people on caste lines, the former CM equated this to watching television.

“People watch a channel and when they get bored, they switch to another channel. If people get bored of all the drama, they may even switch off the television, as they have the remote is their hand,’’ he remarked in a subtle warning to politicians not to take the caste game too far.

Earlier, former minister D.K. Shivakumar regretted that the media had portrayed politicians as corrupt and inept.

The visual media was even portraying politicians as jokers, he regretted. To this, Mr Gowda quipped that that the media loves to portray a few politicians as jokers and not all of them.