Opposition attacks Cong govt. over Nagamangala violence, says party’s ‘appeasement politics’ to be blamed

PTI, Sep 13, 2024, 6:08 PM IST

Representative image

Bengaluru/Mandya: BJP and JD(S) leaders on Friday said the violence in Mandya’s Nagamangala town during a Ganesh idol immersion procession was “pre-planned”, as they hit out at “appeasement politics” of the Congress government in Karnataka.

Clashes broke out between two groups during the procession following which mobs went on a rampage targeting several shops and vehicles leading to tension on Wednesday night.

JD(S) leader and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who is also Mandya MP, speaking at Nagamangala, said it emerges from on-spot inspection that prima facie the violence was “systematically pre-planned”.

Questioning as to what was the government and the administration doing, he asked: “what is the reason for the incident should be probed. Whose failure is it? Doesn’t the government have responsibility…what was the police doing?”

Hitting out at Home Minister G Parameshwara for terming the incident as “minor” and “accidental”, Kumaraswamy said: “what kind of message are you sending out to the people….you are calling it accidental…when such a procession was taking place and it was a sensitive area, if adequate measures were taken, such an incident wouldn’t have happened, shops of people who have been living here for 30-40 years have been torched.”

He alleged that ten minutes before the incident the additional reserve police that were deployed at the spot at Nagamangala were withdrawn and shifted to another place. “Who withdrew? Home minister or someone else?”

Pointing to reference in the FIR about the plan to create communal violence, Kumaraswamy said: “Will you call Parameshwara Home Minister? He had called it a minor incident, see the FIR by your police, they have said lethal weapons, metal pipes and sticks were being carried by the miscreants with an intention to create communal violence.”

Parameshwara on Thursday said the Nagamangala incident cannot be termed as “communal violence” as he maintained that it happened on the “spur of the moment”.

Alleging the role of some within the Congress in instigating “similar violence” by burning shops in Ramanagara and Channapatna in 1990, to remove the then CM Veerendra Patil by creating a “law and order situation,” Kumaraswamy said: “It was sponsored by some in the Congress. Now that they have to face Channapatna bypoll, they have started appeasement…”

Union Minister and BJP leader Pralhad Joshi too said that looking at the developments it looks like it was “premeditated”. Metal rods, stones, and long weapons were used to attack during the Ganesh procession; also a petrol bomb is said to have been hurled.

Noting that last year too tension had prevailed at the spot, he said, adding, had police been given a free hand the incident wouldn’t have happened. “The appeasement vote bank politics that the government is indulging in has led some Islamic fanatic forces indulging in terror activities to feel that this is our government and we will get protection. I’m not accusing all Muslims.”

He too hit out at Parameshwara for saying the violence was not communal.

“The balancing act is being done in protest by arresting both Hindu side and Muslim sides in equal numbers…this is secularism for them.” Stating that Siddaramaiah was running a “Taliban government”, former Mysuru MP and BJP leader Prathap Simha said police will have to abide by his orders and cannot go against him; this is what has happened in Nagamangala.

He warned that “if Hindus who reacted to the provocation are booked and if they are tortured, we will come to the (police) station and to prison if they are put in jail.” Simha further said, “….’Shobha Yatre’ happens in Chitradurga where lakhs of people gather, also in Davangere, Shivamogga, Magadi and Chikkaballapura, in north Karnataka ‘Ganeshotsava’ is celebrated in a big way, if you (CM and Home Minister) don’t give protection from the petrol bombs, ‘talvars’ and stones of Muslim elements, to save ourselves during Ganeshotsava procession we may have to carry petrol bomb and ‘talvar,’; if the situation goes out of hand, Siddaramaiah (CM) will be responsible.”

BJP youth wing chief and Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya said, whenever Congress came to power in Karnataka “Tipu Sultan and Aurangazeb’s offsprings germinate, and they get strength.” “This is what has happened in Nagamangala’s Mohabbat ki Dukan.”