Tunnel road row: D.K. Shivakumar and BJP MP Tejaswi Surya continue to engage in verbal duel

MP for Bengaluru South Tejaswi Surya and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar continued to lock horns over the proposed tunnel road project in Bengaluru.

A few days after both leaders held discussions, Mr. Surya lashed out at Mr. Shivakumar for his remark that ‘people cannot be stopped from using cars’ and ‘there is hesitation to marry a boy who do not own a car’.

He remarked that the Deputy Chief Minister seems to want a tunnel road to solve a social problem.

For car owners

Defending his argument against the tunnel project, Mr. Surya said, “Mr. Shivakumar seems to think the entire city owns cars. As per RTO records, only 12% of Bengalureans own cars. What about the rest? Are they not getting married or leading family lives?”

Reacting to Mr. Surya’s remark, Mr. Shivakumar said, “He is childish and does not have any experience. Out of respect for his position, I called him for a meeting, and now he is talking nonsense.” He went on to sugget that Mr. Surya can ban all tunnel projects in the country once he becomes a Union Minister.

Why is he travelling by car?

Continuing his attack, he further said, “Why is he (Mr. Surya) travelling by car? Let him and his family travel by metro and government buses. Let the MLAs of his party travel by metro and autorickshaws. Why do they need cars? He has to realise that there are about 1.3 crore vehicles in Bengaluru, and we can’t tell all of them use public transport,” he added.

Continuing his tirade, he demanded that Mr. Surya and his party work to bring more funds from the Centre. “The Centre gives only 11 to 12% of funds for Namma Metro, and the rest is borne by the State government,” he said.

The Deputy Chief Minister said that if senior leaders from BJP, such as R. Ashok, C.N. Ashwathnarayan, or Jagadish Shettar ask questions, he was willing to reply ‘because they understand the ground realities.’ He demanded to know where the land was available to do BRTS and if Mr. Surya was ‘even aware of the costs involved in the land acquisition for these projects’.