Amit Shah faces dalit wrath over Hegde’s comments

MYSORE: BJP president Amit Shah was forced on to his back foot as he faced the wrath of sloganeering dalits who demanded the ouster of Union minister Ananth Kumar Hegde for his controversial statements on secularism, amendment to the Constitution and describing protestors as “street dogs”, here on Friday.

On the first day of his tour of Old Mysore region, Mr Shah was visibly embarrassed during an interaction with dalit leaders with V. Srinivas Prasad, BJP leader and former Congress Union minister raking the issue of disciplinary action against Mr Hegde.

He was soon joined by others with dalit leader, Mr Chornahalli Shivan-na, demanding the minister’s ouster. Mr Shivanna was swiftly whisked away from the venue by policemen to prevent more trouble but the situation went out of hand as Mr Shah chose to answer only a few questions though many were posed to him.

The BJP leader tried to placate the leaders with an assurance that the party had nothing to do with Mr Hegde’s statements but the ruckus continued with almost all present at the venue demanding the minister’s dismissal.

Mr Pratap Simha, the local Member of Parliam-ent, tried to pacify the protesters, but the situation turned chaotic. Some of the protesting dalit leaders were taken into custody.

Making the most of Mr Shah’s embarrassment during the meeting with dalits, the state unit of Congress tweeted: “Amit Shah, why can’t you ans-wer legitimate questions raised today in Mysuru about BJP Minister Ananth Kumar Hegde insulting dalits? Why haven’t you taken any action against your party man for such derogatory comments? This clearly shows that BJP endorses his hate-mongering.”