Pratap Simha, BJP MP, said here on Thursday that people indulging in stone-pelting in Karnataka should “expect bulldozers on their doorstep”.
This comes a day after Home Minister Araga Jnanendra hinted at Uttar Pradesh-like “strict action” against rioters.
Mr. Simha told mediapersons in Mysuru that bulldozers had been used in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) which is under the BJP. Encroachment of public places and space is illegal and over and above it, encroachers have also indulged in stone-pelting and hence such illegal structures were being razed to the ground, he argued.
In reply to a question, he said the spate of events in the State be it the murder of Hindutva activist Harsha in Shivamogga or the Ramanavami-related violence in Hubballi raises question. Muslims, he said, should eschew “stone-pelting culture”.
Moderates among Muslims should be more vocal against such ‘’rogue elements’’ lest the entire community risks being tainted, said Mr. Simha.
Meanwhile, speaking in Hassan, the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said his aim was not to do any “adjustment politics” by winning 30 or 40 seats but to “save the poor people whom the BJP was ‘bulldozing’ in the name of removing unauthorised constructions”. He was speaking at the Janata Jaladhare rally of the JD(S).
Mr. Kumaraswamy said Congress leaders often accuse him of engaging in “adjustment politics”. “But we never did so. We never went to other parties begging for their support. In fact, they came to our doorstep. Now the BJP is bulldozing shops and houses belonging to poor people in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Some BJP leaders want the State Government to replicate it here in Karnataka. My fight is to save poor people from such attempts,” he said.
