A public call by a Karnataka minister to “finish off” leader of the Opposition P.C. Siddaramaiah, issued hours after the state BJP president said only Ram and Hanuman devotees and not Tipu Sultan’s admirers “have a place in this land”, has prompted the Congress to lodge a police complaint.
The complaint from state Congress general secretary S. Manohar, lodged on Thursday, accuses minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan and Karnataka BJP chief Nalin Kumar Kateel of inciting violence against Siddaramaiah and other opponents of the BJP’s ideology.
Narayan, state higher education minister, had on Wednesday told a public event that Siddaramaiah should be “finished off in the same manner” as Tipu. He had gone on to name two chieftains who the Sangh parivar claims killed the Mysore ruler. Historians say Tipu died fighting the British in 1799.
However, the minister expressed regret soon after his comment and claimed that he was only urging people to defeat the Congress in the upcoming Assembly elections.
Congress workers held a protest march in Bangalore on Friday against Narayan’s original comment. Siddaramaiah, a former chief minister, had on Thursday dared Narayan to grab a gun instead of instigating people to harm him.
“Higher Education Minister @drashwathcnc has appealed (to) people to kill me like how Tipu was killed. Ashwath Narayan, Why are you trying to instigate people? Get the gun yourself,” he tweeted.
Narayan’s controversial statement came at a BJP event at Satanur in Mandya district.
“Siddaramaiah will come to Tipu Sultan’s place (Mandya was part of Tipu’s Mysore kingdom). Do you want (Hindutva proponent) Veer Savarkar or Tipu Sultan?” he had asked the audience.
“You all know what Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda (the chieftains) did to Tipu Sultan. He (Siddaramaiah) should be finished off in the same manner.”
Narayan later said: “It is Siddaramaiah’s culture to call Prime Minister Narendra Modi a butcher and address the Karnataka chief minister (Basavaraj Bommai) disrespectfully. I uttered those words only as a call to defeat the Congress in the polls. I express regret if I have caused him any pain.”
Siddaramaiah accused the BJP of introducing the “Gujarat culture” of political violence to Karnataka. “Has Gujarat BJP culture crept into Karnataka BJP as well? Will @ narendramodi be silent even now just like how he was silent in 2002? Kannadigas will never let Karnataka to become like Gujarat,” he tweeted.
“I am not surprised by @ drashwathcn’s call to kill me. How can we expect love & friendship from the leaders of the party that worships the murderer of Mahatma Gandhi?”
Priyank Kharge, MLA and head of the state Congress’s communications wing, tweeted: “Looks like appeasing Keshava Krupa (RSS office in Bangalore) is the only agenda for State BJP leaders. BJP has become desperate & (is) trying hard to get the voters’ attention with such nonsensical statements.”
Shortly before Narayan’s remark, Kateel had asked his audience at a party rally in Koppal on Wednesday to decide whether the state “needed the clan of Tipu or devotees of Lord Ram and Hanuman”. “I am asking this question in the birthplace of Lord Hanuman,” he said.
“People who admire Tipu Sultan should not remain in this land and only those who revere Lord Hanuman and Lord Ram should live here.” Kateel had recently said the state polls would be all about V.D. Savarkar and Tipu.