BJP withdrew cases against Hindutva ideologues; sees red now

NT Correspondent Bengaluru: The BJP is up in arms against the recent withdrawal of an old case of stone pelting on the Old Hubballi police station but the saffron party is guilty of something similar. The saffron pa rty under former chief ministers BS Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai withdrew 341 cases by way of seven Government Orders (GOs) between 2019 and 2023. Nearly half of those cases had to do with crimes such as communal violence, cow vigilantism and hate speech and the accused party included Hindutva groups and then sitting MP Pratap Simha.

Stone pelted at cops; The current outrage by the BJP is rooted in the Cabinet sub-committee and Home Minister G Parameshwara on Friday withdrawing 60 cases, one of which had to do with stone pelting on a police station. It was a response to a petition by Anjuman-e-Islam and Dalit leader DB Chalavady. BJP promptly labeled it "appeasement" of a community. Moreover, many of the other cases withdrawn were against BJP leaders such as Minister of State V Somanna, MLC CT Ravi, MP K Sudhakar, MLA Sanjay Patil and several others. A case was also withdrawn against MP Renukacharya, who was booked for claiming Muslims were cultivating a “culture of terrorism” and “hoarding weapons”. On April 16, 2022, a Hubballi youth from a different community posted a WhatsApp status derogatory to a religious figure from the minority community. The culprit was arrested. However, a mob gathered outside the Old Hubballi police station and demanded that the accused be handed to them. Stone pelting ensued and 12 cops were injured. Scores of men were rounded up but locals claimed many of them were guiltless.

Saffron ‘appeasement’ alright? The Indian Express through Right To Information (RTI) replies found that the previous BJP State government issued its first order to drop as many as 21 cases on August 31, 2020, which gave relief to then BJP MP Pratap Simha and 206 members of right wing Hindu groups, apart from 106 Muslims. The second order came in October 2022, dismissing 34 cases against 341 persons over a 10-year time span from 2009 to 2019. The police, prosecution department and law department had earlier objected, calling many of them “not a fit case for withdrawal”.

Siddu first term saw similar row; Siddaramaiah, during his tenure as CM between 2013 and 2018, had given amnesty to 1,600 persons involved in 176 cases, a number of them associated with Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), who had been accused of violating prohibitory orders. BJP had been up in arms about that as well.