Karnataka Congress leader says BJP 'targeting' Muslims out of spite over govt's decision to withdraw cases

'The BJP is protesting against the decision to withdraw case in the Hubballi riots incident only because it involves Muslims. They are not speaking about the other cases, among the 43 cases, regarding which the Karnataka Cabinet has taken a decision', M Lakshmana said.

Mysuru: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) spokesman M Lakshmana said that the opposition parties are targetting Muslims over the decision of the Karnataka government to withdraw cases in connection with the Hubballi riots incident.

Addressing a media conference in Mysuru on Tuesday, Lakshmana said, the BJP is spreading hatred against Muslims and its leaders are spewing venom. “The BJP is protesting against the decision to withdraw case in the Hubballi riots incident only because it involves Muslims. They are not speaking about the other cases, among the 43 cases, regarding which the Karnataka Cabinet has taken a decision. The BJP leaders describe Muslims as terrorists. But, leaders like Union Minister Pralhad Joshi and MLC C T Ravi are ‘terrorists’, who create a divide in the society and cause fear among the citizens. They should be declared as terrorists,” Lakshmana said.

“Among the 43 cases on which the Cabinet has taken a decision, only nine are on the basis of requests by Congress leaders. The remaining were by farmers organisations, pro-Kannada organisations and also by BJP leaders. There were requests to withdraw a total of 60 cases,” he explained.

Lakshmana said, from 2019 to 2023, the BJP government took a decision to withdraw a total of 385 cases and 182 of them were related to hate speech, communal violence and cow vigilantism. “During this period, the BJP government also dropped rowdysheet against 7,361 persons. Crime rate was high during this period and a total of 2,14,234 criminal cases were filed. In the year 2022-23 alone, 20,336 cases of crime against women were filed. Besides, cases of crime against children, against SCs and STs and economic offences were more,” he pointed out.

Former president of Mysuru Zilla Panchayat B M Ramu was present.