Amit Shah says parties must learn to respect veterans by seeing how PM Modi treated Yediyurappa

At a pre-poll rally held in Bidar district, a key religious centre of Lingayats, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said only the BJP can respect Karnataka and its leaders.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and former Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa during the launch of the Vijay Sankalp Yatra and public meeting at Devanahalli near Bengaluru, March 3, 2023. (PTI)

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Political parties must learn a lesson in respecting senior leaders by observing how Prime Minister Narendra Modi has treated former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa following his decision to exit electoral politics, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said Friday. He accused the Congress party in the state of “finishing off” veteran Lingayat leaders in the past.

“Nijalingappa was finished by Indira Gandhi and Veerendra Patil was sacked at the airport. Can Karnataka get any respect? Only the BJP can give respect to Karnataka. The way Modi paid respect to Yediyurappa, other parties must see and learn how to respect an elderly citizen,” Shah said at a pre-poll rally held in Bidar district, a key religious centre of Lingayats.

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Earlier this week, PM Modi had also accused the Congress of treating its leaders from Karnataka poorly, including former Lingayat chief ministers S Nijalingappa and Veerendra Patil, and current Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. This followed a felicitation of Yediyurappa, a Lingayat leader, on his 80th birthday on February 27.

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“I want to remind you how the Congress party hates Karnataka. The leaders of Karnataka have been insulted by the Congress party and it is part of their tradition. Whenever the Congress is upset with a local leader, it begins humiliating the leader. History is witness to the humiliation of leaders like S Nijalingappa and Veerendra Patil at the hands of Congress dynasts,” PM Modi said.

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The Congress party has accused the Prime Minister of paying lip service to Yediyurappa after forcing him out of the chief minister’s post in July 2021 and pressuring him to retire from electoral politics.

“Yediyurappa has only said that he will not contest polls. I want to ask the people of the Veerashaiva Lingayat community not to fall prey to the disinformation by the Congress party. I resigned from the CM’s post on my own. I have said on my own that I will not contest for the next polls. When I say I will not contest the next polls, I mean that I will travel across the state and win your affection and will make efforts to bring the BJP to power on its own strength,” Yediyurappa said in Bidar Friday.

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During his speech in Bidar, Amit Shah also mocked the Congress for its loss in the elections in the north-east. “The Congress lost so badly that we cannot locate them even with binoculars. Can they form the government in Karnataka? For the second time, the BJP has formed the government in the north-east. Modi magic works in north-east, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and even in Karnataka,” he said.

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Shah added that PM Modi had taken the knowledge about the Anubhava Mantapa of the Lingayats – one of the early parliaments – to the whole world by speaking about it at the United Nations.

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