Vijaynath Shetty clarifies on ‘saffron’ row; says controversy was ‘unfortunate’

Vijaynath Shetty clarifies on ‘saffron’ row; says controversy was ‘unfortunate’

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Jan23,2013 : Industrialist Vijaynath Vittal Shetty who recently joined the Congress, has  issued  a statement regarding the recent controversy that sparked off regarding his saffron clothing.

 

In a press statement, Shetty described the controversy as ‘unfortunate’ and has  said that he was deeply distressed to note that a lot of noise was created over certain observations made by the party’s senior leader Janardhan Poojari regarding his wearing saffron clothes during his induction into the party and also during the Vivekananda birth anniversary celebrations.

Stating that he had the highest respect for Janardhan Poojari, Vijaynath Shetty said “ Poojari is an old soldier of the Congress party.  He is held in high esteem for being non-corrupt and lakhs of poor people have benefitted from his hard work, which we should not forget. As Mr. Poojary himself later clarified, his observations were taken out of context and I feel it would be highly disrespectful to a man of his stature to harass or humiliate him on the pretext of this non-issue.

Continuing, Shetty said “ Poojary is well known for single handedly striving for the uplift of the downtrodden, economically and socially backward people and his organizing abilities and social confidence are second to none. Instead of highlighting this small non-issue, it would be more appropriate for us to remember his enormous contributions and respect his leadership”.

As far as his choice of clothing, Shetty said so “I have always been wearing saffron and will continue to do so. I had appraised the party leaders regarding this before joining the party and perhaps this matter was not communicated to all within the party.” “In this regard I wish to further clarify that colour is not important; what really matters is the work we do for the people.

I appeal to one and all to treat this matter as closed and request party workers to focus on working for the party and the people and continue empowering the party at the grass roots level,” Shetty further said in his statement.