Video shows Dalits being asked to serve K'taka CM only branded tea

Bengaluru: The Congress on Thursday shared a video purportedly showing officials instructing a Dalit family to serve only branded and packaged tea powder instead of ordinary tea to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and BJP leader B S Yediyurappa, among others.

Bommai, Yediyurappa, along with Tourism Minister Anand Singh, Water Resources Minister Govind Karjol, and other BJP leaders had breakfast in a house at Kamalapura in Vijayanagara district on Wednesday. Later, the Chief Minister’s office shared pictures and videos of their breakfast.

Today, Congress came up with a video on the Twitter handle wherein the officials were purportedly giving instructions to the family even before Bommai and his team reached there.

In the video, an official accompanied by a police sub-inspector is heard saying that they would take the sample.

“… Get 250 grams of…any company’s tea. Keep other tea dust separately. Don’t use it. Get the company (branded) items,” the official is purportedly telling the family in the video.

The video ended by showing a local newspaper report, which reported that the officials told the Dalit family to use branded items and not others. Also, the video claimed that only packaged drinking water was served to the Chief Minister and others.

The Congress said this incident exposed the mentality of Sangh Pariwar.

“The real mentality of the Sangh Parivar has been exposed in the Chief Minister’s ‘Dalit house meal’ farce. Meals at Dalits’ home had been an insult for the BJP, and now it suspects it too. Did the PayCM Basavaraj Bommai entered Dalits’ houses to insult Dalits? Is BJP so suspicious of Dalits?” the Congress tweeted.

The PayCM is the Congress coinage accusing the Chief Minister of running a corrupt government where a hefty commission is charged for public works.

There was no immediate reaction from the BJP to this tweet.