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The Congress party in Karnataka Thursday lodged a police complaint against Union Home Minister Amit Shah in connection with a recent speech in Vijayapura where the BJP leader had said that if people voted for the Congress in the May 10 assembly polls it would trigger communal violence in the state.
Congress general secretary and in-charge for Karnataka Randeep Surjewala filed the complaint at the High Grounds police station in Bengaluru and asked the police to file a First Information Report (FIR) under section 153 A, 505 and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The speech by Shah on April 25 “was shockingly riddled with flagrantly false statements aimed at tarnishing the image of Indian National Congress by levelling false and unfounded allegations”. The leader said that the speech was made with the clear objective of trying to create an atmosphere of communal disharmony.
“In addition to the above, and more worryingly coming from the Union Home Minister himself, was the statement that if the Indian National Congress wins the upcoming elections, then the entire state of Karnataka will be afflicted with communal riots,” Randeep Surjewala said.
According to the complaint, the statements by Shah indirectly threaten and try to mislead electors into voting for a particular political party and candidate, thereby “being punishable under Section 123 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951″.
Shah while electioneering in Vijayapura two days ago said that Congress leader Siddaramaiah during his tenure as Karnataka chief minister had released all Popular Front of India (PFI) workers who were in custody and that “the Indian National Congress has given an election promise that if it is elected to form the Government in Karnataka, then it shall lift the ban issued against PFI.”
The BJP has campaigned in Karnataka on the platform of the party being a deterrent to incidents of communal violence. On Wednesday Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also stated there would be no rioting and curfew under a double-engine government of the BJP at the state and Centre.
The BJP has often accused the Congress of withdrawing 176 cases against nearly 1,700 activists of the PFI during its 2013 to 2018 tenure. Incidentally, the tenure of the Congress from 2013 to 2018 was marked by several communal incidents over the deaths of Hindu youths and celebrations of events like Tipu Jayanti.
During the current four years of its tenure from 2019 to 2023, the BJP government in Karnataka has ordered the withdrawal of 182 cases filed against right wing activists for incidents of communal violence, hate speeches, cow vigilantism that occurred during the Congress tenure from 2013 to 2018, according to an RTI response by the state government.
Among the cases ordered to be withdrawn by the BJP government are nearly 45 cases pertaining to violence and rioting by right-wing activists over the death of a 17-year-old youth Paresh Mesta after a communal incident in the Uttara Kannada district in December 2017. The death was projected as a communal murder by the BJP but the CBI recently filed a closure report in the case and suggested it was a case of accidental death.
The BJP had used the political momentum generated by protests and violence by right wing activists over many incidents in the run up to the 2018 state polls to create a narrative of the Congress being anti-Hindu in its mode of functioning.
