Congress govt comes under fire over Home minister’s letter on withdrawing cases against rioters

BENGALURU: A day after the Congress government in the state came under attack from BJP over the Udupi paramedical college issue, the party seems to have handed more ammunition to the opposition.

On Wednesday, the BJP launched another fierce attack on the Congress government over a letter written by Home Minister G Parameshwara to the principal secretary, internal administraton (PCAS) to examine whether cases lodged against ‘innocent people’ and ‘students’, who are named as accused in the DJ Halli/KG Halli riots in Bengaluru, and the riots in Shivamogga and Hubballi, can be withdrawn and to act on it.

The letter quotes a written communication from Narasimharaja MLA Tanveer Sait in this regard. After the letter, dated, July 19, started doing the rounds on social media, the BJP launched an attack for appeasement politics.

ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್‌ನ ಪ್ರಕಾರ,
ಭಯೋತ್ಪಾದಕ ಕೃತ್ಯ ನಡೆಸಿದವರು "ಅಮಾಯಕರು"
ಸ್ವತಃ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಶಾಸಕರ ಮನೆಗೆ ಬೆಂಕಿ ಹಚ್ಚಿದವರು "ಅಮಾಯಕರು"
ನೂರಾರು ವಾಹನಗಳಿಗೆ ಬೆಂಕಿ ಹಚ್ಚಿ ಸುಟ್ಟವರು "ಅಮಾಯಕರು"#JihadiSarkara pic.twitter.com/1zaoIJJ8Hd

— Pralhad Joshi (@JoshiPralhad) July 26, 2023

Union Parliamentary Afffairs Minister Pralhad Joshi tweeted saying, “According to the Congress, those who commit terror acts, set fire to a Congress MLA’s house, burn hundreds of vehicles are ‘innocent’. Those who climb on police vehicles in Hubbali and indulge in stone pelting, those who start riots in Shivamogga are ‘innocent’. Is any more proof needed that the Congress government itself is provoking communal unrest?” he questioned.

‘ಒಂದು’ ಕೋಮಿನ ಕಮ್ಯುನಲ್ ಅಪರಾಧಿಗಳಿಗೆ ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ಲೀನ್ ಚಿಟ್ ನೀಡಲಾಗುವುದು ಎಂದು ಬೋರ್ಡ್ ಹಾಕಿಕೊಂಡು @DrParameshwara ರವರು ಕಾರ್ಯನಿರ್ವಹಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವಂತಿದೆ!

ಇದಕ್ಕಿಂತ ನಾಚಿಕೆಗೇಡಿನ ಸಂಗತಿ ಬೇರೊಂದಿದೆಯೇ?

ಈ ಸರಕಾರ ಜಿಹಾದಿಗಳ, ಪಿಎಫ್ಐ ಭಯೋತ್ಪಾದಕರ ತಾಳಕ್ಕೆ ಕುಣಿಯುತ್ತಿರುವುದು ಈ ಪತ್ರ ಋುಜುವಾತು ಪಡಿಸುತ್ತಿದೆ.… pic.twitter.com/FVjeoIbMys

— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) July 26, 2023

The state BJP tweeted that the Congress government is out to protect the riot accused. “D K Shivakumar is trying to save his three ‘AAP brothers’ Zakir Hussain, Raj and Kaleem Pasha in the case registered by the NIA”, the tweet said and questioned Chief Minister Siddaramaiah why his government was showing so much love towards rioters involved in communal clashes.

“Home Minister G Parameshwara seems to have hung out a board that offenders from one community will be given a clean chit. Nothing can be more shameful than this. The government is dancing to the tunes of jihadis and PFI terrorists. The BJP will take up the fight against the ‘jihadi government”, the BJP said.

Former minister V Sunil Kumar said the move is “completely illegal” and warned that such unconstitutional acts for the sake of Muslim appeasement will have drastic consequences. He also tweeted that unseen hands were behind the Udupi paramedical college incident where a mobile phone was placed in the women’s washroom to secretly film girls from the Hindu community.

“The police are trying to paint the accused as innocent and are harassing the victims. In the name of controlling communal violence, the Congress government is targeting Hindus and Hindu groups. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is using the police to consolidate the Congress votebank”, he alleged in a series of tweets.

Home Minister G Parameshwara taking a look at the copy of the letter signed by him on withdrawing cases against rioters.

Meanwhile, reacting to the development, Home Minister Parameshwara initially denied that he had received any such letter from MLA Tanveer Sait.

But when Public TV showed him a copy of the letter, he admitted saying, “I may have written it generally. I may have sent it as per procedure. But it has to be considered by a cabinet sub-committee as per procedure and then send its recommendations to the cabinet on which cases can be withdrawn”.

“I am the chairperson of the cabinet sub-committee and the other members are H K Patil, H C Mahadevappa, Ramalinga Reddy and there will be officials like the DG&IGP too. Just because a letter was issued, it does not mean that the cases will be withdrawn. There’s a procedure for such things”, he said.