Bengaluru: BJP leader and former MLA M P Renukacharya on Thursday said the party's state President Nalin Kumar Kateel should have resigned from the post, taking moral responsibility for the Assembly poll debacle.
Targeting party leaders without taking any names, the former minister alleged that the BJP office has been turned into a "corporate office", and urged them to introspect and work towards strengthening the party and boosting the morale of the workers for the Lok Sabha elections and the zilla and taluk panchayat polls, among others.
"After the election debacle, the state president should have taken moral responsibility and resigned. He should have taken the moral responsibility. Some days ago there was news that he had resigned, and within an hour after that statement came denying it. What is happening," Renukacharya asked.
Speaking to reporters here, he said people still have respect towards the BJP, but the party leaders should set-right things within.
"BJP should come to power once again in the state and at the Centre, Narendra Modi should become Prime Minister once again. Morale of the party workers should be restored to face zilla panchayat , taluk panchayat and other polls. So introspect. I don't know whether there is a soul in some people to introspect," he lamented, alleging that some have turned the BJP office into a "corporate office".
Further alleging that party workers are being threatened, he asked some leaders -- without taking any names -- to shed their dictatorial attitude. Renukacharya said, "Just about four days ahead of elections, leaders held online meetings, virtual rallies. Looking at their faces daily, workers were tired."
When reporters pressed him to take names, he said he will come out with names when the situation arises. "I'm not speaking about Narendra Modi or Amit Shah or J P Nadda, but here some leaders had rigid self esteem, a sense of competition among themselves," the former MLA said.
"Leaders who had no practical knowledge, who had not won even a gram panchayat election were guiding us," he pointed out, adding, "Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, who was the poll co-incharge for the party in Karnataka, came here and was giving guidance to us".
"Is Annamalai a big hero? He had come here and was striking a pose... Former CMs Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai had to listen to someone who used to salute them (Annamalai had served as IPS officer in Karnataka in the past)," Renukacharya charged.
Targeting the state BJP leaders, he said, "When Congress was announcing poll guarantees much before the elections, our leaders were sleeping, and the party manifesto which came very late, did not even reach the people."
Candidates to some seats were announced at the last moment, he added, "which also led to the loss". State President Kateel and other leaders travelled across the state but failed to convert public response into votes, he complained.
Questioning why Yediyurappa was made to step down as chief minister, Renukacharya said his removal from the CM post contributed to the party's defeat in the Assembly election.
"With Modi and Yediyurappa as the face, you wanted to win the election, but what was your contribution towards winning the polls?" he asked party leaders, without naming anyone, despite reporters repeatedly asking whether he was targeting BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh.
He also pointed out that denial of tickets to some senior leaders led to the situation, and questioned, "Were they denied tickets to make way for your (leaders) chelas (followers)?"
Ruling out the possibility of him joining the Congress, Renukacharya said his recent meeting with Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar was just a courtesy call.
"My intention is to see Modi as Prime Minister once again... I'm an aspirant for MP ticket, have conveyed it to the party. Let's see what happens," he said.
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New Delhi (PTI): Broken relationships, while emotionally distressing, do not automatically amount to abetment of suicide in the absence of intention leading to the criminal offence, the Supreme Court on Friday said.
The observations came from a bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Ujjal Bhuyan in a judgement, which overturned the conviction of one Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi by the Karnataka High Court for the offences of cheating and abetment of suicide under the IPC.
"This is a case of a broken relationship, not criminal conduct," the judgment said.
Sanadi was initially charged under Sections 417 (cheating), 306 (abetment of suicide), and 376 (rape) of the IPC.
While the trial court acquitted him of all the charges, the Karnataka High Court, on the state's appeal, convicted him of cheating and abetment of suicide, sentencing him to five years imprisonment and imposing Rs 25,000 in fine.
According to the FIR registered at the mother's instance, her 21-year-old daughter was in love with the accused for the past eight years and died by suicide in August, 2007, after he refused to keep his promise to marry.
Writing a 17-page judgement, Justice Mithal analysed the two dying declarations of the woman and noted that neither was there any allegation of a physical relationship between the couple nor there was any intentional act leading to the suicide.
The judgement therefore underlined broken relationships were emotionally distressing, but did not automatically amount to criminal offences.
"Even in cases where the victim dies by suicide, which may be as a result of cruelty meted out to her, the courts have always held that discord and differences in domestic life are quite common in society and that the commission of such an offence largely depends upon the mental state of the victim," said the apex court.
The court further said, "Surely, until and unless some guilty intention on the part of the accused is established, it is ordinarily not possible to convict him for an offence under Section 306 IPC.”
The judgement said there was no evidence to suggest that the man instigated or provoked the woman to die by suicide and underscored a mere refusal to marry, even after a long relationship, did not constitute abetment.