Bengaluru: Despite pressure, the state government on Tuesday turned down the demand made by the opposition BJP to make the rowdy list public.
During question hour, BJP member Mr U.B. Banagar charged that the police was being used to create a rowdy list by including political opponents of the Congress party and innocents were being framed. Home Minister Mr Ramalinga Reddy then asked Mr Banagar to give a list of the innocent people being framed by the police and said he would examine the issue of dropping them from the rowdy list.
However, most BJP members then stood up and said that the same thing was happening in their constituencies also and the government was using the police for political purposes. This resulted in a heated argument between the BJP and ruling party members with BJP members charging that the government was framing Hindu activists. “If you want to do politics, you should do it directly. Back door politics is not acceptable,” said BJP MLA and former minister Mr Visveshwar Hegde Kageri. The BJP members requested the government to publish the rowdy list, so that they could examine the innocent people. However, Mr Reddy refused to release the list and BJP members started wondering what was so secret about the rowdy list.
Cases against minorities: Reddy refuses to withdraw circular
BJP members trooped into the well of the House in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday as Home Minister, Ramalinga Reddy refused to withdraw the government circular instructing police officers to drop cases against “innocent” members of minority communities across the state.
“The government has already made amendments to the last circular, and so it will stay. There shall not be any change or withdrawal of the circular,” he asserted, angering the BJP MLAs , who walked into the well of the House in protest. Mr Reddy, who was replying to the Opposition party’s debate on law and order in the state, reiterated that the state government was keen on “re-examing” all cases filed against “innocents” in the state, be they students, farmers or any other affected group. “It is baseless to say that the state government is focusing only on minorities. We have already withdrawn the earlier circular and issued a fresh one. Any group can approach us if they think that any innocent person has been booked by the police. This is open to the BJP too,” he added.
Accusing the BJP of creating communal tension, he claimed that of the 23 murders, which it saw as political, only 11 fell into the category. “Not all murders, which you (BJP) refer to are political in nature. Stop vitiating the communal atmosphere in the state,” he said.
