BENGALURU: Condemning Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent statement that if Congress comes to power in Karnataka, the state will be “riot-afflicted”, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “Amit Shah’s statement...is not just hate speech but threat speech. What he said is unbecoming of a Union Home Minister.”
Such statements, Ramesh said are part of Shah’s 4-Is strategy — incite, inflame, insult and intimidate.
“During elections, many things are said, but this is a provocation. This is not accidental, it is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s strategy. They know they are losing, and then it is time to try and polarise voters. They found the communal riots issue. When people ask why there are no riots when there is a BJP government, I tell them because BJP-RSS engineer riots,” he said.
To prove his rationale, Ramesh referred to “riots over the last 70 -75 years. RSS-BJP are at the root of all these communal riots and disturbances, starting from the early ones in Jabalpur in the 60s.’’
Asked if the BJP campaign is more colourful and potent than the Congress, he said, “Their attire may look colourful, but content-wise and speech-wise, they are intimidating.’’
Asked if Congress can encash the anti-incumbency against the state government, he said, “Over the last four months, we have come up with various pre-poll guarantees. BJP is a formidable election machine, and they also have formidable campaigners who will resort to anything to win elections. However, I can feel that people want a change and are ready for it.’’
Congress has a psychological advantage as the BJP is rattled after the exit of high-profile leaders like former CM Jagadish Shettar and former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi, he said, adding that a large number of BJP leaders have also joined Congress. “Going by the demand for tickets, we have had 8-10 aspirants seeking tickets from each constituency,’’ he said.