Bengaluru, Nov 3 (IANS) Karnataka BJP leader and Legislative Council Leader of the Opposition Chalavadi Narayanaswamy has stirred a controversy by stating that BJP workers and supporters would “chop” Congress workers into pieces and throw them into the Arabian Sea if the Congress continued to create anarchy in the country.
The Congress strongly condemned the remarks, questioning the political culture of the BJP and describing the statement as a threat against political opponents.
Narayanaswamy made the controversial remarks while addressing a massive BJP foot march organised in Kolar under the slogan ‘Save Democracy, Eradicate Anarchy’, in response to the Congress protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
“Today, they are misleading people, and this should not be allowed. If you want to create anarchy in the country, I am reminding you that BJP workers and supporters will chop Congress workers into pieces and throw them into the Arabian Sea,” he said.
He alleged that the Congress was attempting to create anarchy in the name of SIR and said the BJP’s fight was against such attempts.
Taking a swipe at the Congress government, Narayanaswamy said Karnataka Rajyotsava should have been celebrated every day in the state, but the government was instead turning every day into an occasion for price hikes. He claimed that people across the state were condemning the government over the rising prices.
He also alleged that the ongoing sting operation controversy in Karnataka was a conspiracy aimed at keeping former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah under control.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Congress President and MLC B.K. Hariprasad strongly condemned Narayanaswamy’s remarks, saying the threat to chop Congress leaders into pieces and throw them into the Arabian Sea reflected the extent to which the BJP’s political culture had deteriorated.
“The tongue does not merely reveal a person’s vileness; it also reflects their civility. If Congress leaders are thrown into the sea, we will become salt and enter people’s brains, and even there, we will work towards building a healthy society. However, the BJP, which has made hatred its political capital, should introspect on what it is contributing to society,” he said.
Hariprasad recalled that BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra had recently used abusive language against the Congress by referring to its members as ‘Congress nan makklu’ (Congress workers are my children). Now, Narayanaswamy was speaking about chopping Congress leaders into pieces. Congress workers would not be intimidated by such empty threats, he said.
“Our blood is that of freedom fighters, not that of cowardly heroes who licked British boots,” he added.
Questioning whether such statements reflected the conduct of political leaders or street rowdies, Hariprasad alleged that while the BJP state president was hurling abuses indiscriminately, the Legislative Council Opposition Leader was using the language of death threats.
“What else can be expected from the protectors of those accused of murdering intellectuals such as Gauri Lankesh, M.M. Kalburgi and Pansare? If the BJP has included murderers in its ‘Rowdy Morcha’, what kind of public language can one expect from them?” he asked.
Hariprasad said the biggest irony was that Narayanaswamy had made the remarks during a BJP foot march organised under the slogan ‘Save Democracy, Eradicate Anarchy’.
“While they chant the mantra of democracy with their mouths, they have a strategy of violence at the tip of their tongues. It is one of the greatest political ironies of this century that those who talk about chopping political opponents into pieces claim that they are fighting to save democracy,” he said.
Quoting the Kannada proverb, “The heavens will not collapse if a dog barks”, Hariprasad said not even a blade of grass belonging to the Congress would move in response to threats from BJP leaders.
The Congress, which was forged in the freedom struggle and had never surrendered to British oppression, was not new to such threats, he said. If the BJP believed that the Congress, which had never feared British oppression, would be intimidated by the verbal aggression of its leaders, it reflected their political ignorance, he added.
–IANS
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