Opposition Congress has demanded that Home Minister Araga Jnanendra be booked and removed from Cabinet for his factually incorrect and “communally provocative” statement on the recent murder in J.J. Nagar in Bengaluru, which the Minister himself had retracted and clarified subsequently.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D.K. Shivakumar came down heavily on Mr. Jnanendra and said it was ironic that the Home Minister, who is responsible for law and order in the State, was himself fanning communal tension. “This is not the first time that the Home Minister has embarrassed the Government. We demand he be sacked and booked for trying to disturb public peace,” he said.
KPCC lodged a complaint against Mr. Jnanendra, besides national general secretary C.T. Ravi and State general secretary N. Ravikumar in Malleswaram police station on Wednesday. With no FIR being filed against them, KPCC followed it up with a letter to DG & IGP Praveen Sood on Thursday, demanding they book the three leaders.
Chandru, 22, was killed in an incident of road rage in the wee hours of Monday, by Shahid Pasha and two of his associates. However, Mr. Jnanendra had claimed Chandru was killed because he did not speak in Urdu, giving it a communal spin. Soon, BJP leaders like Mr. Ravi and Mr. Ravikumar issued statements blaming the minority community, which only added fuel to the ongoing Hindu-Muslim tension in the State, the Congress alleged.
However, the city police came out with a clarification that the murder was the result of road rage over a minor accident and neither was language nor communal passions involved, forcing the Home Minister to backtrack. Mr. Jnanendra said though initial reports suggested a tiff over language, it had now become clear that it was an instance of road rage, on Wednesday.
