Karnataka minister discovers ‘respect’ costs nothing—except clarity
A Congress minister’s remarks at a Hassan grievance meeting triggered a bribery row. His clarification arrived later, carrying a different dictionary.
A grievance meeting in Sakleshpur produced a dispute over what “offer respectfully” was supposed to mean.
A Congress minister in Karnataka has offered the public a novel service-delivery model: officials do their jobs, and citizens may “offer” them something respectfully afterwards. The remark came from Excise Minister K. M. Shivalinge Gowda at a Praja Seva Andolana grievance meeting in Sakleshpur on September 19, after people complained that officials were demanding money to process work.
“Whatever you want to offer, you can do so respectfully. It is your dharma, but nobody should take money forcibly,” Gowda was reported as saying. Attendees objected, and Hassan Deputy Commissioner K. S. Latha Kumari intervened. Gowda later said he meant respect or gratitude, not payment, and stated that nobody needed to give officials even Rs 10.
Complaints were reported to the Governor and Hassan Lokayukta police. The BJP called the remarks evidence that the Congress government was normalising bribery; that remains a political allegation, not an established finding. No government order permitting payments has been reported.
For Telangana, the useful lesson is simple: when public servants demand money, the answer is an investigation—not a minister explaining that the envelope was really appreciation. The Congress government in Karnataka has yet to make that distinction sound less like a clarification and more like governance.