Mysuru, Nov 15 (IANS) Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy, breaking his silence over the racial slur hurled at him, slammed the Karnataka tourism minister Zameer Ahmad Khan and also those defending his disparaging remarks.

Kumaraswamy spoke to media after visiting Mysuru’s Chamundeshwari temple and said, “Do you think I come from such a background to address Minister Zameer as ‘shorty’ and to be called as ‘kariya’ (Kaala, blacky) by him? His words show his culture.”

“The Congress leaders are claiming that we were close and racist remarks are not a big deal. If they have any shame, they should know we were close, the closeness was over politics and it was not on personal levels,” he further clarified.

He also slammed the Congress ministers who have been either tacitly or openly supporting Zameer’s racist jibe at him.

“I have seen how the Congress leaders have defended the racist remarks. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Dy CM DK Shivakumar and Home Minister G. Parameshwara have defended the racist remarks. They file cases for no reason and send innocents to jail for making such remarks. Don’t they find it objectionable and disgusting? Do they have no shame left in them?” Kumaraswamy asked.

He further said that Zameer Ahmad Khan had once rushed to assault the House Speaker Basavaraj Horatti.

“I have never called Minister Zameer as ‘kulla’ (shorty). I am standing in the premises of the temple and saying this. Once he (Minister Zameer) had rushed to assault the present Speaker Basavaraj Horatti. Why did he rush to assault the Speaker? You can inquire with him,” he told the scribes.

“Not in my entire life, have I used such a word to address Minister Zameer, he has also not addressed me in that fashion. You should have seen the kind of respect he (Minister Zameer) showed towards me, no one can act like that,” he stated.

Zameer Ahmad Khan, Tourism and Waqf minister of Karnataka had stirred a controversy some days ago when addressed Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy as ‘Kaala Kumaraswamy’.

Though hours later, he tendered an apology stating, “We both are very close. He used to fondly address me as “kulla” (shorty) and I used to address him as “kariyanna” (blacky, kaalia).”