Former chief minister Siddaramaiah signed a resolution on Sunday condemning BJP MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal’s recent comments against freedom fighter H S Doreswamy.
“There is an agenda behind these attacks. They are part of a larger conspiracy concocted by the RSS. The hands behind these moves are often visible. These comments by Yatnal and others attacking the heroes of the freedom struggle are a component of that agenda,” Siddaramaiah said.
The Congress leader also suggested that the “failed” policies of the Modi government were a catalyst for the framing of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and for the personal attack on Doreswamy. “These are all tactics to divert the public’s attention from Modi’s failures, such as the economy,” he said.
The four-point resolution, which was framed by a collective of artists, intellectuals and opposition politicians under the broad ambit of the Prajadhikara Horata Samiti, demanded that Yatnal be barred from the legislative assembly and that legal action be taken against him.
The resolution also asked the censuring of Yatnal for disrespecting Article 51 A of the Constitution and in particular section B which calls on citizens to “cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom.” A fourth condition demanded that all Karnataka BJP leaders who supported Yatnal’s statements seek out an apology from Doreswamy.
At a press conference in Vijayapura last week, Yatnal had called 101-year-old Doreswamy a “fake” freedom fighter and a “Pakistani agent”.
Aland MLA B R Patil, who was among the signatories to the resolution, described Yatnal’s attacks on Doreswamy as “deeply hurtful”.
“In response, we have been holding protests at Anand Rao Circle for the last few days but on Monday, we will protest at the base of the Gandhi Statue at the Vidhana Soudha. We will not let this offence go,” he said.
The four-page scathing resolution declared that Yatnal had no moral authority to hurl allegations against Doreswamy considering that he himself had 24 to 26 criminal cases.
“What is astonishing to me is this audacious idea the BJP has that Doreswamy was somehow born yesterday,” added writer G K Govinda Rao, another signatory to the resolution. “The BJP apparently has the idea that Dorewswamy started the whole of his career yesterday, and that he has no moral authority,” he said.
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