Taking off from BJP MLC Ashwathnarayana’s drift on the literary community’s continued digs at politicians, Karjol said the recently concluded Sammelana at Gangavati had set a bad precedence as the politicians had been projected in poor light. The matter came up for debate during a discussion on the setting up of the Folk University in Karnataka. Karjol said the primary focus of the writers had been to criticise and condemn politicians, legislators and ministers, and their choice of words was anything but sane, evoking a strong reaction from the Opposition members.

He said that all politicians were being projected as being guilty of crime. “We cannot afford to give them complete freedom to express whatever they feel. There should be some limit even to criticism. The politicians have been very badly insulted. Why should the State spend crores of rupees to be insulted by the writers in such fashion? The objective of the Sammelana is entirely different,” he said. He told the House that he would produce cassettes and recordings of the proceedings of the Sammelana, in which politicians had been ‘unnecessarily attacked’.

“If we are being projected in poor light, we should seriously introspect whether or not we are capable of discharging our duties – whether we are able to give good governance. Those who come to this House have to be respected, for, not all of us are bad,” he added. Taking exception to this, JD(S) MLC Y S V Datta said freedom of speech of the writers should not be curtailed. Instead, the government should take the criticism in a sportive spirit and bring about reforms in governance. To this, Karjol went on the offensive and said if the Opposition members felt there was nothing wrong, then the government would pass a resolution approving the statements of the writers.