The attacks on BJP leaders and other Hindu activists in the southern states of the country continue unabated. Today morning, BJP activist and Dalit leader Sri Srinivas Prasad, popularly called Kithaganahalli Vasu (43 years), was hacked to death by unknown assailants at Anekal in Bengaluru rural district.
As per reports, he was on his way for his morning walk when the assailants reportedly stopped his car, pulled him out and then hacked him to death around 5 AM.
BJP activist, Dalit leader Sri Srinivas Prasad, popularly called Kithaganahalli Vasu (43years), hacked to death at Anekal in Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/Q1O1Mp18aW
— Rajesh Padmar (@rajeshpadmar) March 14, 2017
Reacting to the incident, RSS Media Coordinator for Karnataka, Rajesh Padmar, said the state government should take strong steps to stop such politically-motivated killings.He also demanded an immediate and impartial probe into it.
“In the last two years, more than 10 RSS-VHP-BJP activists have been killed (in Karnataka). It is a dangerous development in a democratic set-up,” Padmar said.
He also said that the deceased was a soft-spoken person and had no criminal cases against him.
License to murder Hindu activists in Left/Congress ruled ‘secular’ states?
There seems to be an undeclared open license to attack, murder and intimidate Hindu activists in states ruled by ‘secular’ parties like Congress, CPM etc. These attacks in southern states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are not new, but are now coming to national attention solely due to the advent of social media – if left to national media, these murders would be classified as routine ‘political rivalry’ and buried in the inside pages.
Multiple murders of BJP and Sangh activists have been reported in Karnataka since last year.
- On 16 October, RSS leader Rudresh was hacked to death in broad daylight in central Bengaluru. Police arrested 4 Muslim men with links to terror organizations Indian Mujahideen, al-Ummah, and radical Islamist socio-political outfit PFI (Political Front of India). BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje has also alleged that the conspiracy to murder Rudresh was hatched by Congress leader & state Urban Development Minister Roshan Baig, who is also the MLA from Shivajinagar where the murder took place.
- On 4 November, BJP Yuva Morcha leader J Ravi was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Mysuru district. Few days later, another BJP member Sunil Dongre (35) was found murdered in Bidar district.
- In March 2016, BJP worker K Raju was hacked to death in broad daylight at a tea stall, in communally tense Kyathamaranahalli, Mysore. In August, Abid Pasha, a 34 year old carpenter associated with Popular Front of India (PFI), was arrested by Karnataka police for 8 murders over a span of 6 years, including that of K Raju.
- In October 2015, a flower seller & Hindu activist involved in stopping illegal cow slaughter, Prashant Poojary (29), was hacked to death in Moodbidri, Karnataka. Police arrested 8 PFI members for the crime (Mohammad Sharif, Mohammad Mustafa, Kabir and Mustafa Kavoor, Mohammud Haneef (36), Mohammud Ilyas (27), Ibrahmin Liyaqat (26) and Abdul Rasheed (39)).
The innumerable murders of RSS activists in Kerala at the hand of CPM death squads has come to national knowledge in recent months due to unstinting efforts of social media activists and independent reporters like Advaita Kala. According to the Times of India, over 20 political workers belonging to the BJP and RSS, have been murdered in Kannur district (hometown of hardline Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan) in just the last eight months.
Vismaya, 12-year-old daughter of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activist Mullapram Ezhuthan Santhosh, who was murdered by goons from the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) in January, has posted a heart-wrenching video online, asking why her father was murdered
Vismaya, Daughter of Santoshkumar, says "They murdered not just my dad, but my dreams and future" pic.twitter.com/UJwVo2ppME
— J Nandakumar (@kumarnandaj) March 8, 2017
The story is no different from Tamil Nadu, where a silent conspiracy to eliminate Hindu leaders from organizations like Hindu Munnani, VHP, BJP is underway.
Media distorts
Yet, despite the facts staring us in the face, this is how media outlets like The Quint report on the murder of Hindu activists
So the daylight murder of Sangh activist Rudresh R in central Bengaluru – a crime for which police has arrested 4 Muslim activists linked to jihadi outfits – is still ‘alleged’ for The Quint even 6 months after the crime and associated arrests.
Incidentally, The Quint, a digital media outlet started by ex-CNN IBN boss Raghav Bahl, is under fire for a controversial sting operation on the sahayak/buddy system in the Army – the video released by the media outlet revealed the identity of an Army jawan Roy Mathew who was being filmed without his knowledge, and the jawan later allegedly committed suicide. Even media insiders believe that it was The Quint’s “bad journalism” that eventually killed Roy Mathew.
With the body count of murdered Hindu activists increasing with each passing day, the question to be asked is what steps the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh plans to instill some confidence in his own beleaguered party workers? A ban on a dangerous outfit like PFI would be a logical next step.
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