BJP agenda is to spread communal hatred, says Congress leader Dr G Parameshwar

Bengalur: Hitting out at BJP leaders, Congress leaders - KPCC president, Dr G. Parameshwar and KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao charged on Tuesday that they were trying to stoke communal violence exploiting the death of a common man.

Speaking to reporters here, Dr Parameshwar said, "They seem to be working with an agenda to trigger communal hatred across the state by spreading lies and rumours." Mr Rao who spoke separately to the media, said the police should be allowed to investigate why he (Paresh Mesta) was killed.

He alleged that BJP leaders are adopting the worst form of politics right from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to their lower rung leaders. "Now I realise why leaders like Anant Kumar Hegde and Pratap Simha speak like this because they are inspired by the PM," Mr Rao quipped.

He added, "They are creating violence, disturbances, destroying government property and attacking MLAs’ house. What kind of people are they? What is their agenda? Mangaluru MP Nalin Kumar Kateel had gone around saying he will make Dakshina Kannada district burn some time ago, however when it came to light that the man in question had died due to some other reason, he fell silent. But they have made their intentions clear that they want communal disturbances in the state on one pretext or the other," he charged.

Mr Rao further claimed that in the present case involving Paresh Mesta in Honnavar, the post-mortem report says something else while BJP leaders are making wild allegations saying he was tortured and hot oil was used. “How do they come to such conclusions? This is only done to create and provoke violence in Karnataka," he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Parameshwar slammed the BJP’s claims that the forensic report on Mesta’s death was a work of fiction and also attacked Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje saying she was inciting people.