Control your hooligans, ex-CM tells BSY on JNC fracas

Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah on Thursday asked Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to “control hooligans from your party” and that the Congress will not let Karnataka become a victim of “your Hitler rule.”

Siddaramaiah was reacting to a fracas that occurred at Jyoti Nivas College, an all-girls college in the city where students alleged Wednesday that a few people claiming to be BJP workers threatened a JNU-style attack if they refused to sign a poster supporting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

“BJP goons are threatening students of Jyoti Nivas College (sic) to support CAA. Mr Yediyurappa, I am strictly warning you to control hooligans from your party. Don’t subvert knowledge & institutions for your selfish motives. We won’t let Karnataka to be victim of your Hitler rule!” Siddaramaiah said in a tweet.

“Educational institutions are a source of dissemination of knowledge, critical thinking & scientific temper while BJP ideology is on weak foundations of fascism. BJP is threatened by the knowledge base of our universities & hence they want to subvert & weaken them,” he added.

The Congress is already up in arms over the JNC fracas, with some leaders drawing a parallel with the JNU violence, while appreciating the defence put up by the JNC students. “From Shaheen Bagh to Jamia, from JNU to JNC. Young women are showing how it is done,” Congress’ Shivajinagar legislator Rizwan Arshad said in a tweet with a video of the students arguing with the BJP workers.

Responding to Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan said in a tweet that he had no “locus standi” to speak against Yediyurappa. “Your rule saw targeting of Hindus, with more than 20 youth being murdered,” Narayan said.

“Every citizen’s freedom of speech will be protected. That includes the students in our colleges or the karyakartas of our party. This begs the question as to why are you so hassled with our karyakartas explaining CAA to citizens? Are you scared that your false propaganda will get exposed? Do remember that it is your party which is founded on ethos
of opportunism,” he said.