Madhu shrugs off Vijayendra haircut jibes

Kodagu, NT Bureau: Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Madhu Bangarappa on Tuesday shrugged off criticism by BJP state president BY Vijayendra a day prior. Vijayendra had been recalling the criticism he had leveled against Bangarappa over the allegedly poor state of education in Karnataka.

He had brought up the reported hiring of government school teachers and the granting of grace marks to students who took the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) exam conducted earlier this year. However, Vijayendra went on to suggest that Bangarappa didn’t have enough money for a haircut.

Bangarappa who sports long hair and a beard, has been a producer and actor in the Kannada film industry. “If he lacks money, then we’ll tell our Yuva Morcha to send him some money for the haircut,” Vijayendra had said.

Madhu was in Kodagu to campaign for Congress South-West Teachers Council seat candidate K Manjunath Kumar and the party’s SouthWest Graduates Council constituency candidate Ayanur Manjunath. The seats go to polls on June 3, alongside four others.

When asked about Vijayendra’s criticism, Bangarappa defended the government school teachers as those with “merit” and laughed off the suggestion that he couldn’t speak Kannada. “People criticize every little thing. I don’t feel like answering. I’m also tired of it.Everything from this (his hair) is spoken about. It is not of great importance,” Bangarappa said.