VIJAYAPURA: Former Union Minister and Bijapur city constituency MLA Basangouda S Patil Yatnal
on Thursday defended his comments on Muslims which was recorded in a video that has gone viral online.
In the video, the legislator can be seen addressing a group of BJP corporators and he asks them to not work for the development of the Muslim community as they had not voted for the BJP. "I never asked Muslims to vote me, I had faith in Hindus that they would vote for me. Hindus are the one who ensured my win in the elections. I will work to develop Hindu community, not the Muslims," he says in the video.
On Thursday, the leader held a press conference in which he said that he stood by his comments and that the elections were a war between Hindus and Muslims. He said that he stood by his statements in the video in which he can be seen telling the audience of corporators to not allow women clad in burkhas, bearded men and those wearing hats near their office.
Yetanal also lashed out at journalists on Thursday for what he termed 'biased coverage'. "The media won’t question Muslim leaders like Abdul Owaisi who comment against Hindus but you (media) people question only Hindus. Media is biased," he said.