BJP team marches to Raj Bhavan, wants Siddaramaiah govt dismissed

Bengaluru: The Opposition BJP on Thursday marched to Raj Bhavan, seeking dismissal of the Congress government for the alleged ‘Pakistan zindabad’ slogans raised on the Vidhana Soudha premises, even as CM Siddaramaiah promised stringent action against the culprits. 

BJP lawmakers staged a protest inside the Assembly, before walking out and heading to Raj Bhavan to submit a memorandum to the Governor.  

Siddaramaiah said his government had taken the matter ‘very seriously’ and that a suo motu case was registered.

“Seven persons have been questioned in connection with the incident,” he said. However, BJP members demanded that those responsible should be arrested. 

Countering BJP lawmakers’ allegations that Congress practises appeasement over patriotism, the chief minister said the Congress need not learn lessons on patriotism from BJP as Congress is ‘100 times more patriotic than BJP’. 

Taking on the CM was leader of the Opposition R Ashoka. He said that the BJP had been highlighting time and again about how the law and order situation had deteriorated in the state ever since the Congress came to power.

‘Govt going slow’

“There is gross inaction in nabbing the culprits who shouted ‘Pakistan zindabad’ slogans after Congress’ Nasir Hussain was declared elected to Rajya Sabha. Why are you going slow?,” he said. 

Ashoka taunted that the government was offering ‘biryani’ to the suspects in the case, on the pretext of questioning them, instead of arresting them.

BJP members entered the Well of the House, shouting slogans like ‘Sullo sullu (lies,  lies), ‘burude, burude’ (utter lies, utter lies) and ‘Jai Sri Ram’.

BJP-JD(S) walkout

The BJP and JD(S) members staged a walkout, alleging that the government was coward and did not want to act tough against anti-nationals. 

Yeshwantpur BJP legislator S T Somashekar did not join his party colleagues and decided to stay put in the House.  

On reaching Raj Bhavan, the BJP delegation handed over a memorandum to the Governor’s office, urging him to recommend to the President the dismissal of the Siddaramaiah government. 

‘Make FSL report public’

Later, speaking to reporters here, Ashoka demanded that the report of the forensic science laboratory on the video clips must be made public.

“The government is trying to hide many things and it has never come out clean on such cases. They are trying to protect anti-nationals,” he said.