D K Shivakumar
Credit: PTI File Photo
Bengaluru: Writers are politicians too, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said on Tuesday, defending a meeting he held with heads of various academies at the Congress office recently.
“It was me who called them for a meeting in the Congress office. What’s wrong with that? Writers are politicians too and they can enter politics,” Shivakumar, also Karnataka Congress president, said.
The BJP had objected to writers heading state-run academies attending a meeting inside the Congress office.
“They are appointed by the government. They can be called anywhere for meetings. There’s nothing that says they (writers) shouldn’t become politicians,” he said.
Shivakumar argued that academies are not independent bodies. “All are politicians. They do politics by having their own ideologies. They may not talk about it. When I called them (for a meeting), those willing came, some didn’t,” he said.