Your past conduct shows words are cheap: Siddaramaiah on Shah's 'outrage' over atrocities on women
Bengaluru (PTI): Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday took at swipe at Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s expression of outrage over the alleged sexual abuse of several women by JD(S) Lok Sabha candidate Prajwal Revanna.
Amit Shah on Wednesday said in Hubballi that the "BJP cannot remain with those who commit atrocities against women", referring to the Prajwal case.
“Dear Amit Shah avare, thanks for finally expressing outrage in the #PrajwalRevanna matter,” Siddaramaiah said in a post on social media platform X. “You have also said you don’t condone violence against women even if it is done by an ally of yours. One is tempted to believe you, but your conduct in the past has shown that talk is cheap.”
Siddaramaiah asked how anyone can forget how the Olympian wrestlers were sexually harassed by a BJP MP, Brij Bhushan Singh.
“Who did you stand with? Your MP, of course, and you let the women athletes sit in protests on the streets of Delhi for weeks,” the chief minister recalled.
Siddaramaiah said, “Can we forget how the rapist convicts of the Bilkis Bano (case) were released on parole by the Gujarat BJP government and your party men garlanded them? It took the Supreme Court to reprimand your party’s state government.”
He asked if anyone can forget how the BJP stood behind the perpetrators in the Unnao case, where a minor Dalit girl was raped and murdered.
“Can we forget how your party defended the perpetrators of rape in the Hathras case? Can we forget how the BJP turned a blind eye when women were made to parade naked in Manipur?” he asked.
He said, “Women of the nation know the truth, and it's time for you to wake up to the reality.”
Prajwal, the grandson of former prime minister and JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda and son of former minister H D Revanna, is seeking re-election from Hassan on the JD(S) ticket.
Just before the elections, a huge cache of explicit videos and photographs, allegedly involving Prajwal indulging in the sexual abuse of several women, have gone viral on social media.
The Karnataka government constituted a SIT on the request of Karnataka State Commission for Women chairperson Nagalakshmi Chowdhary to investigate the allegations against the Hassan MP.
A case has been registered against both Revanna and his son Prajwal at Holenarasipura based on a complaint lodged by their former cook and relative for allegedly sexually harassing her. She alleged that Prajwal made video calls to her daughter and spoke in an objectionable manner, which forced her to block him.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
