As the state of Karnataka continues to debate various arrests in the state over charges of sedition, Karnataka Minister BC Patil told mediapersons in Chitradurga on Sunday that there needs to be a law to shoot protesters.
Addressing the press, the Agriculture Minister of Karnataka said, “We need a new law in India. People who shout anti-India and pro-Pakistani slogans should be shot in the eye, and a law should be brought to this effect in the country. This is of immediate importance.”
He added that people need to be afraid of making such statmenets. “They eat and drink in India, and breathe its air. How can they say Pakistan Zindabad and stay in this country? Let them go to China and say a single word against China? Citizens get frightened to speak against China. This is the situation in other countries.”
“People are doing whatever they want in this country. I plead to the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi): such people need to be brought down. These traitors of the nation, if they are shot in the eye, these activities will stop. For this, we need a new law.
Meanwhile, in Bengaluru, Home minister of Karnataka Basavaraj Bommai told mediapersons on Sunday that the police would investigate a “conspiracy to induce youth in anti-national activities”, as reported by the Hindu. He told reporters that they would monitor social media posts.
Additionally, colleges where such students were studying, and organisations who were part of organising protests would be under the scanner, Bommai stated. He said that if students were not reined in from ‘anti-CAA activities’, action would be taken against the college authorities and orgnaisers of protests, reported Deccan Herald.
Basavaraj Bommai also said that they were investigating the student Amulya Leona’s “connections to Naxals". Though many BJP ministers have been saying this, the police have not spoken of any proof to indicate the same.
Amulya Leona had said “Pakistan Zindabad” thrice and later “Hinduatan Zindabad” while addressing a gathering in Bengaluru. She was immediately surrounded and not allowed to finish. Student protesters say that the statement was misconstrued and referred to her Facebook post where she had said, Zindabad to all countries. “…I don’t become a part of a different nation just because I say Zindabad to that nation. As per law, I am an Indian citizen. It is my duty to respect my nation and work for the people of the country…”, she had said.