Gauri Lankesh Murder: BJP steps up call for Siddaramaiah's resignation
Mangaluru: BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa and hundreds of workers were detained here on Thursday after the police foiled a bid by them to take out a bike rally to protest the alleged killings of Hindu activists in the coastal districts of Mangaluru and Udupi. But in a clever twist to the Mangaluru Chalo campaign, Yeddyurappa attempted to turn the killing of anti-Hindutva activist and journalist Gauri Lankesh to his party's advantage by clubbing it alongside the attack on RSS activists here, and calling on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to resign over the breakdown in law and order. The BJP's Yuva Morcha is demanding a ban on the SDPI, Popular Front of India (PFI) and Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD), describing them as Muslim 'radical' outfits.
Tactical shift? BJP too joins chorus on Gauri
In a tactical shift in strategy, BJP leaders have started taking up the murder of writers Gauri Lankesh and M.M. Kalburgi to 'prove' the failure of the Congress government in the state.
It was common for BJP leaders to highlight the murder of 18 BJP-RSS workers after Siddaramaiah came to power. This was meant to encash the Hindu sentiment. But after the death of Gauri Lankesh, a severe critic of saffron outfits, BJP leaders have started mentioning the names of Gauri and Kalburgi in their speeches to show that not only BJP and RSS leaders, even those who stood by Siddaramaiah were not safe!
During the Mangaluru Chalo rally, Udupi MP Shobha Karandlaje was the first to take up the issue and spoke of the two writers who were murdered along with the murder of 18 saffronists. "Not only Hindu leaders, there is no protection for even those who support Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Prof. M.M. Kalburgi was killed about two years ago and two days ago, Gauri Lankesh was murdered right in the state capital," former minister R Ashok said.
Leader of the opposition in the state assembly Jagadish Shettar questioned why the Kalburgi case was not handed over to the CBI and lamented that though he was killed two years ago, the assailants have not been arrested yet.
