The ruling BJP, the opposition Congress and JD(S) condemned the Tuesday night riots in northeast Bengaluru and called it “a planned conspiracy.”
A mob ran amok because of an inflammatory social media post on Prophet Mohammed. The violence targeted the KG Halli police station and the house of Congress’ Pulakeshinagar legislator Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, resulting in the deaths of three people due to police firing.
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“Our MLAs tried to control it, but they couldn’t. I’ve seen in the media that it was a planned conspiracy,” Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar told reporters. “The Congress condemns this. The government should take action as per law and we will cooperate.”
Former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy of the JD(S), too, condemned the violence. “This incident solidifies the doubt that it was planned. The partisan behaviour of local elected representatives and the lust for power has resulted in a small spark becoming a ball of fire, exploding the anger of innocent people,” he said.
The BJP is going to town about the incident, pointing out that it was a Dalit MLA who was targeted. “At least acknowledge that your own Dalit MLA’s house was ransacked. A police station was destroyed. Why so much of appeasement, fear when your own MLA is targeted? Be simple & straight Sir...,” BJP national general secretary (organization) BL Santhosh said in a tweeted directed at Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao, who accused him of “using this terrible incident to gain political mileage.”
Read: Bengaluru MLA's house attacked by mob over Facebook post; three dead, two injured
Speaking to reporters in Hubballi, BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel likened this incident with the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. “How did the miscreants get so many stones and petrol to create violence,” Kateel asked.
BJP general secretary Ashwath Narayan charged that SDPI and PFI leaders were involved. “This is the result of several decades of appeasement politics,” he said. “It could also be an attempt to disrupt communal harmony in the wake of the peaceful Ram Mandir development,” he said, urging the government to book the miscreants under the stringent Goonda Act.