Nikhil has gone astray, admits CM father

BANGALORE: Blame bad company and yuppie lifestyle for Nikhil Gowda’s tantrums. This candid admission is not from the public, but his father Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, on Nikhil getting into a brawl at a restaurant that refused him food after closing hours, on Thursday.

“This (brawl) incident might happen in the company of friends,” Kumaraswamy said on Friday. Nikhil and his two friends, all in an inebriated state, abused the staff of the Empire restaurant and later ransacked it for refusing them food.

The staff retaliated on the VIP sons, who were treated for injuries in the government-run Bowring Hospital.

“It is because of the attraction of youngsters (his son and friends) for high life in the city,” Kumaraswamy said, of Nikhil, who had thrown beer bottles on the glass panes of the restaurant. Nikhil, who drives a Rs70 lakh Hummer, likes life in the fast lane.

Even as the opposition Congress sought Nikhil’s arrest for his tantrums, Kumaraswamy said his son’s actions would not have any impact on him or his coalition government’s image. “I came back home very late in the night, I have not spoken to Nikhil,” he said.

Kumaraswamy and his father, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, maintained that the law will take its own course and they would not apply any pressure on the police.

Meanwhile, the Empire restaurant officials claim to possess CC TV footage of the incident and would produce it as evidence against Nikhil and friends to the authorities.