BENGALURU: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and senior BJP leaders on Friday tore into the opposition Congress after its state president DK Shivakumar accused the government of terming the cooker blast case in Mangaluru as an act of terror to divert attention from the voters’ data theft case.
Bommai said Congress leaders talk lightly about terror activities, extend support to terrorists and criticise when terrorists were hanged. AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and former AICC presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi should clarify whether they are in favour of militants or patriots, the CM said responding to Shivakumar’s remarks
Speaking to reporters after attending the Vijay Diwas event in Bengaluru, the CM said it was not the job of patriots to make statements that will affect the morale of the police department and the nation. He said when terrorists are caught along with evidence, questioning the ongoing investigation is like extending moral support to the terrorist organisations.
The pressure cooker exploded when a person was carrying the bomb-making materials in it and it is clear that the accused had planned to carry out the explosion in Mangaluru City, he said and added that the arrested person who had concealed his identity, had been arrested in 2-3 cases. It is also clear that this terrorist had links outside the country, the CM said.
Bommai said it is not correct on the part of Shivakumar to term the Mangaluru blast as an ‘accident’ and try to hush it up. This is an election tactic by Congress to appease a minority community, but people are now aware and such tricks will not work, he said.
Responding to Shivakumar’s remarks on the voters’ data theft case, the CM said the order was issued to that company in 2017 by the then Congress Government. The BJP Government has ordered a probe and the police have investigated and arrested a few persons, he said.
Revenue Minister R Ashoka asked Shivakumar to apologize to people for his remarks, while Higher Education Minister Dr CN Ashwanth Narayan termed the Congress leader as a “sultan of terrorists’ involved in low-level politics.
On Thursday, Shivakumar stated that the state police chief had tweeted about the case terming it as an act of terror even before the investigation to divert attention from the voters’ data theft case. Clarifying his statement, the Congress leader on Friday said he had not supported or justified the cooker blast case, but the BJP government uses such cases to divert people’s attention from the government’s failures.