Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Priyank Kharge has said that he has received a threat letter at his office in the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru.
Addressing a press conference at the Congress office here on Thursday, Mr. Kharge read out some paragraphs of the letter written in Kannada which contained unparliamentary and abusive words against him and further, extended a threat to his life.
He, however, brushed aside the idea of police protection and said that it is not the first time that he has received such threats. Last year, a recording of a phone call went viral in which BJP leader Manikanth Rathod is supposedly speaking of finishing off the Kharge family. Irony is that the BJP-led government did not take any action against the accused, Mr. Kharge said and added that this time, the BJP leaders seem to want to conduct elections over his body.
“Such threats cannot stop me. I believe in the ideals of the Buddha, Basaveshwara and Ambedkar. Let the BJP leaders depend on Modi’s [Prime Minister Narendra Modi] blessings, but people’s blessings will be with the Congress forever. BJP leaders indulge in personal attacks as they cannot defeat me with ideology. They target me because mine is the ideology of secularism and equality,” Mr. Kharge said.
He reiterated that the saffron party leaders chant his [Kharge] name and target him as he had exposed multiple scams, including Bitcoin and police sub-inspector recruitment scams, that took place during the BJP government in the State.
“BJP leaders couldn’t answer my simple question that who gave Savarkar the title Veer. Two of them, K.S. Eshwarappa and Pratap Simmha, have raised objections that I often criticise the BJP for their wrongdoings and expose them. I am the chairman of the KPCC communication and social media wing and I have all the rights to speak on various issues. The BJP leaders fail to answer my question every time and they launch personal attacks on me and my family members,” Mr. Kharge said.
Terming Kalaburagi MP Umesh Jadhav as “Chincholli constituency MP”, Mr. Kharge said that Mr. Jadhav has failed on all fronts during his five-year tenure and now, his own party workers are upset.
Chairman of Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board Ajay Singh, Kalaburagi South MLA Allamprabhu Patil and MLC Thippannappa Kamaknoor were present.
