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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Fascism will not be allowed to enter through the back door of vote rigging: CM Siddaramaiah
New Delhi: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday asserted that fascism would not be allowed to enter India “through the back door of vote rigging” and called upon citizens to collectively defend the country’s democratic foundations.
Speaking after participating in an anti–vote rigging protest organised in New Delhi, Siddaramaiah said the gathering was not merely a political demonstration but a stand to protect Indian democracy. “We have come to the heart of our republic not as Congress workers or voters, but as protectors of Indian democracy,” he said.
Emphasising the importance of the right to vote, Siddaramaiah said it was the most sacred right guaranteed by the Constitution and the very foundation of democracy.
“Through voting, a farmer shapes the future of his children, a worker safeguards his dignity, a youth realises dreams, and a nation expresses its collective will,” he said.
He accused the BJP-led Union government of attempting to undermine this right through what he termed systematic vote rigging, including the alleged misuse of the special revision of electoral rolls. “This power is being stolen repeatedly,” he alleged.
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Warning against authoritarian tendencies, Siddaramaiah said history had shown that dictatorship does not begin with violence but with the misuse of institutions and manipulation of democratic systems.
“Across the world, authoritarian regimes pretend to protect democracy while quietly subverting it. This is what the BJP is doing today,” he charged.
He alleged that the ruling party was controlling institutions, intimidating electoral machinery, distorting voter lists, suppressing voter turnout in opposition strongholds, and misusing money and power. “This is not mere maladministration. Vote rigging is an attack on the very idea of India,” he said.
Siddaramaiah further claimed that governments formed through “stolen votes” could not be considered democratic.
“Such regimes survive through fear, fraud and distortion of the people’s mandate,” he said, adding that vote rigging posed the biggest threat to the republic since Independence.
Praising Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Siddaramaiah said he had shown exceptional courage in exposing alleged irregularities in voter lists, booth-level manipulation and “systematic, organised vote rigging” across several states, including Karnataka, Haryana and Bihar.
Referring to Karnataka, Siddaramaiah cited Mahadevpura and Aland constituencies as examples highlighted by Gandhi. In Mahadevpura, he said, thousands of allegedly fake and fraudulent voter entries and discrepancies in electoral rolls pointed to a narrow BJP victory. In Aland, he said, attempts were made to remove the names of legitimate voters ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections.
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He noted that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) had recently filed a chargesheet accusing seven persons, including a former BJP MLA and his son, of attempting to delete the names of around 6,000 voters in Aland.
“This is a significant legal step in the fight against vote rigging,” he said.
Siddaramaiah concluded by stating that the fight against vote rigging was rooted in constitutional morality, Ambedkarite thought and the core principle of democracy. “Sovereignty belongs to the people, not to any party, regime or those who seek to steal elections,” he said.
