The Indian National Congress (INC) party on Thursday, April 27th, complained to the police against Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his alleged remark during a political rally in poll-bound Karnataka. INC complained to the police against Shah that he allegedly told his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters that Karnataka would be “afflicted with riots” if the INC comes to power.
The INC requested the police to urgently file a first information report (FIR) against the Union home minister and the organisers of the BJP rally at Vijayapura. INC’s Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala made the complaint to the station house officer of the High Grounds Police Station along with Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar and former deputy chief minister G Parameshwara. The Karnataka Police remains non-committal on whether it will take any step according to the complaint.
It has been alleged by the INC that Shah’s remarks during the April 25th gathering at Vijayapura were driven by a clear intention to disrupt the communal harmony in the southern state. Surjewala and other INC leaders alleged that Shah’s remarks deliberately attempted to tarnish the image of their party in the poll-bound state.
In their complaint, the INC leaders have highlighted, what they claimed as a few of Shah’s “false, malicious and dangerous” claims. The INC leaders have claimed that the former BJP chief also spread misinformation regarding the previous INC government in the state under former chief minister Siddaramaiah.
Shah allegedly claimed that the Siddaramaiah-led INC government in Karnataka had released all arrested members of the Popular Front of India (PFI), a Muslim organisation banned in 2022. “Siddaramaiah, the former chief minister, had released all PFI workers who had earlier been kept in custody, and it was the BJP government who later had to locate and jail them again. Congress has given an election promise that if it is elected to form the government in Karnataka, then it shall lift the ban issued against PFI”, Shah had alleged.
The INC called Shah’s remarks on the PFI baseless and malicious. The INC claimed that it’s more dangerous as such remarks are coming from the Union home minister. The INC leaders claimed that Shah’s statements attempted to incite any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community; they claimed such acts are punishable under Section 505 (promoting enmity) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In their complaint against Shah, the INC leaders claimed that such statements also violate other IPC sections as well as are punishable under Section 123 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, as they also indirectly threaten and try to mislead voters into voting for a particular political party and candidate.
The BJP-ruled state will go to polls in May 2023, and the BJP and the INC are the main contenders for power. Both Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been campaigning in Karnataka to thwart anti-incumbency sentiments and the allegations of gross corruption levelled against the incumbent government. Karnataka is the only BJP-ruled state in southern India.
