Shah accuses Sidda of instigating dalits

Mysuru: A day after a group of dalits leaders raised slogans during Amit Shah’s meeting in Mysuru, the BJP president on Saturday accused Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah of instigating them to disrupt his meeting. The protesters were demanding resignation of Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde for his reported controversial comments about dalits.

When asked  how the party intended to handle the dalit factor now, he said Mr Hegde regretted making the statement they found offensive. “The way my meeting was disrupted indicates it is Siddaramaiah’s style,” he charged, claiming that previous Congress-led governments at the Centre had always neglected the Father of the Constitution, Dr B.R. Ambedkar and did not present him even the Bharat Ratna. “It is we who have created memorials at five locations for him,” he said.

“Siddaramaiah behaves like he is a champion of the OBCs, but although the Kakasaheb Kakelkar commission recommended an OBC commission several years ago, the Congress governments have done nothing about it so far. And when we wanted to give Constitutional status to OBCs and passed the bill in the Lok Sabha, Mr Digvijay Singh prevented it from being passed in the Rajya Sabha, demanding the inclusion of a  few minority communities under the OBCs. In the Rajya Sabha, we do not have enough numbers to get the bill cleared. Why can’t Mr Siddaramaiah persuade them?” he asked, adding that the Modi government gave respect to leaders from all communities, including the Vokkaligas.  

On the state’s recommendation for an independent religious and minority status for Lingayats, Mr Shah said it was merely an election strategy of the Congress to divide the community vote as the BJP had announced Lingayat strongman, B.S. Yeddyurappa as its chief ministerial candidate.

“The Lingayat-Veerashaiva issue has been alive for the past 70 years. If they  were so serious about it they could have recommended it immediately after assuming power in 2013.  Why are they doing it now? And why did the UPA government under Manmohan Singh reject the same proposal?” he demanded.