Jarkiholi apologises for storm he raised

NT Correspondent

Belagavi: After unleashing a storm in political circles, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president Satish Jarkiholi on Wednesday apologized for his remark dubbing Hindu “a dirty word.”

His retraction came two days after a video in which he was heard making the statement, went viral. The former minister had refused to apologise and had offered to resign as MLA. On Wednesday however, he said he had been spreading the message of Basavanna, Buddha and Ambedkar and his words were twisted.

“ I hereby retract my statement. Moreover, I regret my statement if it has caused hurt,” he wrote in a letter to CM Bommai. “There is a conspiracy afoot to project me as anti-Hindu,” he claimed and added that a committee should investigate.

Jarkiholi had made the remark in Belagavi saying, “Where did the word Hindu come from? Is it ours? It is Persian. Where is Persia? Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan. What is India’s relationship with them? How is Hindu your word then? Look it up on WhatsApp and Wikipedia to know where this Persian word came from. It isn’t yours.

If you learn its meaning, then you would feel ashamed. The meaning of the word Hindu is dirty,” Jarkiholi had said.