Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and MLC N Ravikumar has come under severe criticism after he made a communal remark against the Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner Fauzia Tarannum at a protest rally.
The Kalaburagi Chalo rally was organised in Kalaburagi on May 24 in response to the alleged siege by Congress workers of a guesthouse in Chittapur, where the Leader of the Opposition in the Council, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, was staying. The Congress workers were irate after Narayanaswamy allegedly made personal remarks against Minister Priyank Kharge, the sitting MLA from Chittapur.
Referring to the guesthouse incident, Ravikumar, who is also the Opposition Chief Whip, said, “The Kalaburagi DC office has also lost its independence. The DC madam is also listening to what they (Congress) say. I don’t know whether the DC has come from Pakistan or is an IAS officer here.”
In a long post on X, Priyank condemned the incident and said, “They have called an army officer the 'sister of terrorists', claimed soldiers fall at Modi’s feet, and now they’ve gone so far as to call a Deputy Commissioner someone who came from Pakistan. BJP’s thinking never goes beyond Pakistan and Muslims… Whatever an official's religion may be, they serve the public under the oath of the Constitution and work within its framework,” he said.
Minister Sharan Prakash Patil accused BJP leaders of provoking tensions. “This is a deliberate attempt to provoke and communalise the atmosphere. Such statements against an officer performing her duties are unacceptable,” Patil said.
“Can BJP leaders just stand in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office in Kalaburagi and declare it the ‘Republic of Kalaburagi’? ... It appears that the BJP is afraid of Priyank Kharge, which is why they keep coming to Kalaburagi to protest again and again,” he posted on X.
This controversy follows another recent instance where BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh Minister Vijay Shah referred to Colonel Sofia Qureshi as a ‘sister of the same community as the terrorists’. He later apologised and said his comments were a linguistic mistake, not meant to hurt anyone’s feelings.