Even as the Karnataka government moved the High Court, seeking to appoint a claims commissioner for recovery of damage costs from rioters in the August 11 incident in DJ Halli, leader of opposition Siddaramaiah has demaded that the law be implemented with retrospective effective, covering all the communal clashes and riots in the state in the last 30 years.
"Recovering the cost of damages caused to public property from rioters is a good move. But it should not single out any particular community or incident. It should cover all communal incidents of the last 30 years," said Siddaramaiah, after the government decision to follow the UP model, as the DJ Halli incident saw the local MLA's house being torched, a police station vandalised, and several vehicles gutted by miscreants.
Stating that the derogatory Facebook post shared by Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy's nephew was part of a big conspiracy, the former chief minister said, "The government is directly responsible for the DJ Halli riots. The police faltered by not acting swiftly when they received the complaint against Naveen for his derogatory post on the Prophet. Now, who created that offensive post and gave it to Naveen, and who is behind the post going viral on the social media? It is a big conspiracy and needs to be probed," he added.
'A sensitive locality'
Making a serious allegation against the BJP government and senior police officers, Siddaramaiah said, "The intelligence failure is evident. This government has sidelined the honest and capable police officers and kept them in non-executive posts. The corrupt and insensitive officers holding the key posts have failed to contain the violence. The August 11 incident has taken place in a sensitive locality and the trigger for the violence was also sensitive in nature. Why did the officers neglect the case? Can a government that fails to protect an MLA's house or the police station provide security to the common man? The government, blaming some wayward youths for the incident and claiming to be efficient, is not only evil but also shameless."
Siddaramaiah who had withdrawn 175 cases filed against PFI and SDPI activists during his tenure as the chief minister, said, "How many persons have the BJP government identified as communal goondas till now? Can you ban all the communal organisations including the ones affiliated to you? Take action against BJP's former MLA Jeevaraj who tried to instigate people in Sringeri over the flag issue. If not for the CCTVs in the mosque, the former member of Bajrang Dal would not have been identified as the real culprit. The instance of the home minister assuring a communal leader of dropping all cases against him in coastal Karnataka was reported in the newspapers. This is detrimental to the society."
Mocking the BJP for constituting a fact-finding committee (headed by Aravind Limbavali) to look into the DJ Halli riots, Siddaramaiah said, "A ruling party forming this panel is a mockery of democracy. It will impact the ongoing investigation. Does this mean your government does not trust the police? If the police officers are not trustworthy, stop paying them salaries with the taxpayers' money and send them home."
The former chief minister also demanded a judicial inquiry into the riots by a sitting judge of the High Court for a "fair and impartial" probe.
