BENGALURU: Attacking one of the main campaign pitches of BJP of the murder of ‘23 Hindu activists,’ the state Congress has said that the claims were misleading. Even people who were alive were included in the list, the party has alleged. Congress leaders have also threatened to file defamation suits and police complaints against the BJP for publicising lies to gain electoral benefits.
To counter the BJP pitch, KPCC has also decided to distribute pamphlets regarding the status of the said cases. Releasing the documents, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Dinesh Gundu Rao and Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy said that of the 23, only nine have died of communal incidents.
“One of the 23, Ashok Poojary was still alive. One murder was due to land dispute, another died in an accident, and 10 were murdered due to personal enmity. Only nine of the deaths were due to communal incidents,” Reddy said.
He said there were links of PFI and SDPI to the nine murders in communal incidents.
On the other hand, Rao said, six murders have been committed by Hindu extremist organisations, of which three victims were Hindus.
“We filed a complaint against Chikkamagaluru MLA C T Ravi for spreading false information. If BJP continues to propagate such lies for campaigning, we will file a complaint,” Rao said.
Condemning the polarising comments made by BJP leaders such as Anantkumar Hegde, Naleen Kumar Kateel and Shobha Karandlaje, he said BJP has turned Karnataka into a laboratory to experiment ‘hate politics’.