Mysore/Mysuru: Speaking for the first time to media after the recent Parliament security breach where the passes provided by his office were used by the perpetrators to carry out the daring scare in a high-security zone, Mysuru Kodagu MP Pratap Simmha asserted that the ultimate judges of whether he is a traitor or a patriot will be Goddess Chamundeshwari and Goddess Cauvery and the people of his Constituency.

“The people of my Constituency have seen my work in the last nine years and the people of Karnataka have read what I have written in the last 20 years and also have seen the Mysuru-Kodagu region’s development. They have seen me speak and how I took a stand when it came to the country, safeguarding and propagating national interests and Dharma. They will decide and they will answer in the 2024 Lok Sabha election,” the MP told reporters in front of his house in                                                       Vijayanagar this morning.

However, Pratap Simmha refused to speak about Manoranjan, one of the accused in the Parliament security breach incident. “Ask me anything other than this issue. People who are knowledgeable know the truth,” he said, cryptically. 

PM Modi’s brainchild

Regarding Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s assertion that he (Simmha) did not build the Mysuru-Bengaluru Expressway, the MP emphasised that people are well aware of the noise made by empty drums in politics. 

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Expressway during a rally at Maharaja College Grounds in 2018 and released Rs. 6,000 crore for the project the next day. The Bhumi Puja ceremony was conducted by Union Minister for Road Transport Nitin Gadkari. Where were Siddaramaiah and Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa then? Despite facing criticism when the Expressway faced waterlogging near Ramanagara during heavy rains, I ensured that the gaps are rectified,” he said.

“The project cost Rs. 8,500 crore, and neither Siddaramaiah nor Dr. Mahadevappa contributed to it. The Expressway is PM Modi’s brainchild. I completed all assigned tasks correctly and travellers will recognise the Expressway’s significance. It is not appropriate for the CM to make such comments and it amounts to cheap politics,” he said.

On the hijab controversy, Simmha said, “The previous BJP Government implemented the ban to maintain uniformity in the dress code. It is important to keep the hijab row out of the political domain as everyone is equal in the eyes of the law and bringing politics into the issue is inappropriate,” he added.  

Airport naming

Turning to the proposal to name  Mysore Airport after Tipu Sultan, Simmha accused Siddaramaiah of being more inclined towards Tipu’s ideology than that of the former Mysuru rulers, who laid a firm and pro-people foundation for Karnataka. 

Commenting on Siddaramaiah’s criticism of PM Modi’s flight travel, Simmha pointed out that Parliament has entitled the PM to travel in the Air Force One plane belonging to the Government. Mocking Siddaramaiah for using luxury jets with his associates, Simmha highlighted that Modi always travels in Government flights, urging Siddaramaiah not to compare himself with PM Modi.