NEW DELHI: The BJP on Wednesday strongly rejected the allegations that the ideology linked to the party was behind the killing of senior journalist Gauri Lankesh. The BJP sought impartial and swift probe into the murder, with early arrests of the killers.
Top ministers of the NDA government at the Centre, including Nitin Gadkari, Ananth Kumar and Prakash Javdekar rejected the attempt to drag the ideology of the BJP and its affiliates into the murder of the senior journalist. They unequivocally condemned the killing and demanded justice, besides asking the Karnataka state government not to allow the probe to linger on as had been the case with the 2016 MM Kalburgi murder case.
Hitting out at the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi, Gadkari charged that the allegations levelled by the leaders of the Opposition party are untrue and detrimental to democracy. “The government or the party or any of the organisations linked to the party have no links with the killing of the senior journalist,” asserted Gadkari.
Seeking to turn the table against the ruling Congress in the poll bound Karnataka, Ananth Kumar, who is Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and senior leader of the BJP in the state, rued poor law and order situations. He added that there had been 16 instances of political murders, besides that of Kalburgi last year. Union Minister for Human Resources Development (HRD) Prakash Javdekar tweeted: “I strongly condemn brutal murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, the Siddaramaiah government in the state must conduct speedy probe to nab the culprits”.