Instigating communal tension is Amit Shah's 'standard', charges Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today attacked BJP chief Amit Shah, alleging that instigating communal tension was his “standard”. “Whoever indulges in triggering communal violence in Karnataka, we will not allow them. We will take strict action against those who take the law into their hands,” he told reporters here.

“I will not say that (Narendra) Modi will come and instigate to do it, but Amit Shah…that is his standard. He doesn’t know anything other than that. He feels it is (political) tactics,” the chief minister added. The comments of the Congress leader came on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the city to address a BJP rally.

Siddaramaiah also asserted that Modi’s visit or the rally would have no implications in Karnataka. “They (BJP) are also a political party. He (Modi) is the prime minister of the country, so he is coming to seek votes on behalf of his party. It will have no implications in Karnataka,” he said.

Accusing the BJP of spreading lies and indulging only in criticising others, Siddaramaiah said, “They do not know anything else. Lying and criticising are the qualities they have imbibed because they are not pro-people.”

In a frontal attack on the Siddaramaiah government on January 25, Shah had called it a “corrupt, malicious and oppressive” regime and asked the people of the state to “root it out” in the Assembly polls due this year.