മന്ത്രിമാരെ കാണാൻ എത്തുന്നവർ മെറ്റാ സ്മാർട്ട് ഗ്ലാസുകൾ ധരിക്കുന്നത് അനീതിയാണെന്ന് കർണാടക ആഭ്യന്തര മന്ത്രി പ്രിയങ്ക് ഖാർഗെ. ക്യാമറയുള്ള ഗ്ലാസുകൾ ഉപയോഗിച്ച് രഹസ്യമായി ദൃശ്യങ്ങൾ പകർത്തി സ്റ്റിങ് ഓപ്പറേഷനുകൾ നടത്തുന്നത് മര്യാദകേടാണെന്ന് അദ്ദേഹം പറഞ്ഞു. മുഖ്യമന്ത്രി ഡി.കെ. ശിവകുമാറിന്റെ ആരോപണങ്ങളെ പിന്തുണച്ചാണ് ഖാർഗെയുടെ പ്രതികരണം.
Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had alleged that unidentified visitors wearing Meta smart glasses had raised suspicions of a possible sting operation.
Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge on Saturday said using camera-enabled Meta smart glasses to secretly record meetings with ministers and dignitaries was unethical. His remarks came after Chief Minister D K Shivakumar alleged that unidentified visitors wearing the glasses had raised suspicions of a possible sting operation, amid a wider political controversy over alleged sting videos involving Karnataka leaders.
"I am not sure in what context the CM has spoken, but anybody who is meeting dignitaries must follow some protocol. You might have Meta glasses for your eyesight, but if it has a camera, then naturally there will be doubts. You must have the courtesy and respect for the dignitary not to indulge in secret recordings - if people are uncomfortable," Kharge said on Saturday.
"There are a lot of people who come and meet ministers; quite naturally, CBI, IT, ED are being used, and now they have also started trying to do these covert video or sting operations. When anybody comes to meet a senior cabinet minister or CM, it is not ethical to have camera glasses switched on," Kharge said.
Earlier this week, Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, in an interview with a TV channel, raised suspicions of being targeted in a sting operation by unidentified business visitors wearing Meta glasses.
"A businessman had come to meet me and spoke to me about his business. He took me to my ante-chamber and opened a laptop. Instead of talking to me about business, he started talking about politics and how election booths can be managed. He was talking like a psephologist. I looked at his face since I had doubts about him. I looked at his glasses and grew suspicious. I asked my team to conduct an inquiry about him," Shivakumar told the Kannada channel.
"When this businessman met V D Satheesan, the CM of Kerala, he had worn different glasses. When he met Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh CM), he did not wear glasses. When he met a Central minister, he did not wear glasses. He also did not wear them to meet an IT minister. Only while meeting Satheesan and me did he wear Meta glasses," Shivakumar said on the TV channel.
The chief minister said the incident had happened when there was information that some of the state ministers were likely to be targeted in sting operations. "I had warned them about this in a cabinet meeting recently. I had advised them to be cautious. What is wrong with that?" Shivakumar said.
Although the attempted sting claim against him had not been disclosed to law enforcement agencies, "we have taken all precautionary measures," the Karnataka CM said.
Shivakumar's recent claim amid raging sting politics
Following Shivakumar's warnings to his cabinet and the filing of a police complaint by former chief minister Siddaramaiah over a "fake" sting video uploaded on social media, JDS leader, former Karnataka CM and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy, an arch rival of Shivakumar, accused the Karnataka CM of playing a pivotal role in the sting videos against rivals.
Kumaraswamy has claimed that Shivakumar conspired with other Congress leaders to oust Siddaramaiah from the CM's post in June using a sting video.
"There is nothing suspicious or confusing in the matter (the sting video case filed by Siddaramaiah. It is a matter of time, and the conspiracy will be exposed," Home Minister Kharge said on Saturday.
"Everyone and everything involved will be exposed - where did the conspiracy take place, who carried out the sting, why did they do it, in whose hands did the video reach after all these years, and how did it suddenly get uploaded. All these things will be exposed in a few days," he said about the Siddaramaiah video.
Kharge said the investigation process will take time as the incident was supposed to have occurred in 2011, for which a sting was conducted in 2023, and it has surfaced in 2026. "We cannot act in haste just for the sake of publicity. The honour of the party, the government and most importantly that of the former CM Siddaramaiah is involved and we will not compromise on the probe," Kharge said.
Kumaraswamy alleged that the investigations into the sting complaint filed by Siddaramaiah were primarily targeting workers from the JDS' war room and social media units.
Shivakumar's past brushes with sting operations
Shivakumar was incidentally the target of a sting operation in March 2014 when he was the state energy minister, where two young representatives of a popular Kannada TV channel pretended to be energy business operators and attempted to capture on camera the handing over of an amount of Rs 5 lakh to him.
Shivakumar and his staff got wind of the sting operation after a couple of meetings with the TV channel representatives - one of whom allegedly had a hidden camera in a pair of glasses. The Bengaluru police were called on the day money was to be handed over to the minister, and the two channel representatives were arrested, and their MD was also named an accused.
The case went to trial, and eventually the channel representatives were acquitted in March 2020 after the special public prosecutor sought to withdraw the case with the court's consent.
"Here they, being journalists, were trying to find out whether the complainant is indulging in any corrupt activities while discharging his official duty as a minister of the state of Karnataka, as they had received information about corrupt practices in government offices and they were trying to bring to light the corrupt activities with proof," the court said in its 2020 acquittal order.
Incidentally, when the trial in the 2014 sting episode against Shivakumar was ordered by a local court, the channel representatives had approached the Supreme Court to stop the trial. The SC had allowed the trials, saying, "All sting operations have to be regulated. One has to involve some police officers for trapping a public servant."
The current Karnataka CM was also accused in 2023 of being behind a sex sting video, which had forced BJP leader Ramesh Jarkiholi to quit as BJP minister in 2021 when the woman in the video levelled rape charges against him.
"D K Shivakumar and company have to be arrested. The woman who made the CD and the two youths who facilitated it should be arrested, also a granite businessman, his driver, and two leaders from Mandya - all hatched the conspiracy to create a CD to defame me," Jarkiholi claimed in 2023.
"Did I ask him to take off his pants?" Shivakumar said in 2023 about the 2021 Jarkiholi CD episode.