Ahead of Karnataka polls, BJP releases pro-hindutva video
A BJP SPOKESPERSON CLAIMED THAT 22
BJP WORKERS WERE MURDERED UNDER
THE SIDDARAMAIAH GOVERNMENT’S RULE, 10 OF WHICH WERE CARRIED OUT BY THE PFI
NEW DELHI: The ‘Hindu’ stamp on the BJP’S campaign for the upcoming Karnataka assembly election just got bolder.
The party released a 1:12-minute-long video accusing an unmentioned entity (referred to as “them”) of killing Hindus, and charging the Congress of “stealing the saffron colour”. The clip was first shared by the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP on January 12, and retweeted by the party’s national unit the following day.
The video goes on to show Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah performing an ‘aarti’ and Congress president Rahul Gandhi draping a saffron shawl over his shoulders even as the voiceover accuses the grand old party of making people suffer.
Adityanath, who visited Bengaluru on January 7 to address a public meeting during the BJP’S Parivartan Yatra, has been duelling with Siddaramaiah on Twitter. When the godman-politician asked Siddaramaiah why he was “endorsing” beef eaters despite being a Hindu, the Karnataka CM retorted by questioning the former’s right to criticise the food habits of people. “Many Hindus eat beef, and I will too if I want to. I do not eat beef because I do not like it. Who is he to ask anyway?” Siddaramaiah shot back.
The saffron-clad UP politician has visited the southern state on two occasions to attend the BJP’S yatra for change. “There will be more visits by him,” a BJP general secretary said.
BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao said while “positive governance” and “anti-corruption” will remain the party’s key issues in the campaign, it will also “expose the Siddaramaiah government’s blatantly communal designs in not reining in radical organisation such as the PFI (Popular Front of India) and its tacit understanding with such groups”. Rao went on to claim that 22 BJP workers were murdered under the Siddaramaiah government’s rule, 10 of which were carried out by the PFI.
Dakshina Kannada district secretary of the PFI, Ashraf AK, said these were complete lies. “BJP’S MPS used to earlier claim that the PFI had killed 24 Hindutva activists. Now that number has reduced to 10. It is clear that ahead of the elections they will come up with numbers to suit their requirement,” he said.
Ashraf said that in many cases, PFI leaders had been falsely implicated as the default move of the police when a Hindutva activist died was to book PFI members.
State home minister Ramalinga Reddy rubbished the BJP’S allegations saying the figures were untrue. “Over the past five years, 11 Hindutva workers have been killed in communal violence. The rest were either killed by other Hindus or died due to other reasons,” he said. Besides, Reddy said, BJP is yet to answer for the eight Muslims who have been killed by Sangh activists.
Adityanath stayed at the Adichunchunagiri Mutt, headed by Vokkaliga seer Nirmalananda Nath Swami, on January 6. The religious establishment belongs to the Nath sect, to which Adityanath belongs. The UP chief minister addressed 35 rallies across two dozen districts of Gujarat in the run-up to its assembly election in December.