BENGALURU: A day after former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, along with 14 others, received threat letters, Revenue Minister R Ashok called it "fake and unverified".
The senior BJP minister mocked Kumaraswamy, even as his party colleagues —right from JDS’ formidable rival in Chikkaballapur and BJP MP BN Bachchegowda to newly-elected MLA Dr Sudhakar — appealed for additional security for the former CM. Interestingly, all three BJP leaders who reacted on Sunday belong to the Vokkaliga community — the same as Kumaraswamy.
“This seems like a fake threat. How can anyone threaten him? He goes around threatening everyone. Who has the spine to threaten him? If there is indeed a threat, the police can handle it. Let him give a complaint on where the threat came from, which district or state or country, and then the government will give him apt protection,” said Ashok.
The minister’s colleagues, however, had a different story to narrate. "Such threat letters aren’t a good sign. There should be an inquiry on where these letters came from. I heard the CM say that HD Kumaraswamy should take a decision. The CM shouldn’t have said that. Action should be taken against anyone who indulges in such activities," said BN Bachchegowda, BJP MP from Chikkaballapur.
The senior politician pointed out that Kumaraswamy was also a former CM, and any threat to him should be treated seriously. Even former Congress MLA and now newly-elected BJP MLA Dr Sudhakar appealed for Kumaraswamy’s security.
"I will appeal to the CM on behalf of Kumaraswamy to provide him with Z+ security. I do not know who he is under threat from - he is a very simple man," said Dr Sudhakar. The call for additional security to Kumaraswamy from BJP leaders comes a day after Deputy Chief Minister Dr Ashwath Narayan took potshots at the former CM for exploiting his community backing.