Bengaluru: A day after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath's jibe over the ‘deteriorating’ law and order situation in Karnataka, both Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah and Home Minister, R. Ramalinga Reddy mounted a scathing attack on the former on Wednesday stating that Yogi Adityanath should focus on addressing "lawlessness" in his home state rather than commenting on Karnataka.
While Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah took the twitter route to hit out at Mr Adityanath, Home minister, Ramalinga Reddy lashed out at him by issuing a detailed rebuttal in a presser here.
In his tweet, Mr Siddaramaiah recalled that after Mr Yogi Aditayanath had come to power in Uttar Pradesh, more than 1,250 children had lost their lives in a government hospital in Gorakhpur. He quipped on twitter that BJP leaders' language reflects their culture or the lack of it. "I cannot go down to their level. I can only quote Basavanna," he added while citing a famous couplet of the 12th century social reformer Basaveshwara.
While addressing a press conference, Mr Reddy hit out at Mr Adityanath remarking that state BJP leaders were so incompetent that they had to get the UP CM- who rules one of the most lawless states in the country-to Karnataka. "He comes here to advise peaceful and prosperous states like ours about law and order. Doesn't the state BJP have leaders of any worth?," he ridiculed.
Mr Reddy charged that BJP leaders like Anant Kumar Hegde, Naleen Kumar Kateel, C. T. Ravi and Shobha Karandlaje are ‘black marks’ on the state. "For the sake of political benefit, these leaders will not even hesitate to lie and abuse anyone," he retorted.
He asserted that the state's law and order situation had improved compared to the BJP's tenure in power between 2008-13. "During the BJP's tenure, murder cases stood at 8,885 while cases of robbery stood at 9,648 and assault cases were at 1.06 lakh. During the tenure of the Congress government from 2013-18, cases of murder stood at 7,759, cases of robbery at 5,542 and there are only 93,886 assault cases booked so far. Such being the case, how can the BJP claim that law and order has collapsed? Statistics indicate that the situation has improved drastically," he declared.
