The Hindu : Krishna govt. must resign: BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 10, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Krishna govt. must resign: BJP

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Dec. 9. The BJP has demanded that the Congress government headed by S.M. Krishna should resign forthwith, taking moral responsibility for the killing of the former minister, H. Nagappa, who was abducted by Veerappan on August 25.

If the Government had acted to nab Veerappan soon after release of the Kannada matinee idol Rajkumar, abducted by him earlier, the unfortunate episode would not have happened, the President of the BJP State unit, Basavaraj Patil Sedam, said today.

When contacted by The Hindu on the telephone, Mr. Sedam, who was on his way to Kamagere, Mr. Nagappa's village, pointed out that the second blunder committed by the Government was its failure to seek the cooperation of the Tamil Nadu Government to nab Veerappan for nearly 80 days after the abduction of Mr. Nagappa.

As if this was not enough, the Government had chosen to send back the Central forces which had been drafted to nab Veerappan, Mr. Sedam said.

The Government became active only when Veerappan's patience was exhausted, by which time it was too late. It had, therefore, to pay the price for its blunder by quitting.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Jagadish Shettar, the Union ministers from the State, Anant Kumar and Basavaraj Patil Yatnal, the party's General Secretary, Aravind Limbavali, and B.S. Yediyurappa and Ramachandra Gowda, MLCs, accompanied Mr. Sedam to Kamagere.

The situation following the killing of Mr. Nagappa will be discussed by the BJP with other Opposition parties at a meeting called by Mr. Shettar tomorrow to finalise the future course of action.

In a statement, the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, D.H. Shankara Murthy, condemned the brutal killing of Mr. Nagappa, and regretted that the Government had not responded speedily and sufficiently to prevent the tragedy despite anticipating such a turn of events and pressure form the Opposition.

The Chief Minister had entrusted the entire operation to the Home Minister, Mallikarjun Kharge, to escape responsibility. It was, therefore, necessary that he accept moral responsibility and resign immediately, Mr. Shankara Murthy said.

While conveying his condolences to the members of the bereaved family, the BJP leader, in his statement, also appealed to the people to exercise restraint and maintain the peace.

Dharna

The party today staged a dharna near the Mahatma Gandhi statue here demanding the resignation of the Krishna government "which had lost its moral right" to continue in office after the killing of Mr. Nagappa.

Party workers raised slogans against Mr. Krishna and Mr. Kharge for dealing with the abduction of Mr. Nagappa in a "casual manner" and delaying negotiations for his release..

The party leaders criticised the Chief Minister for canvassing for the party in the Gujarat Assembly elections, unmindful of the developments on the Nagappa issue.

They also took the Chief Minister to task for not getting in touch with his Tamil Nadu counterpart, Jayalalithaa, to devise a joint strategy to nab Veerappan because the latter was critical of the AICC President, Sonia Gandhi.

Katta Subramanya Naidu, MLA, R. Ashok, MLA and President of the city unit of the party, and B.V. Ramachandra Reddy, State unit Secretary, addressed the party workers.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

Reward hiked for nabbing bandit

An unexpected end to the hostage crisis

`Delay in negotiations led to tragedy'

Protest marches taken out in Bidar, Bijapur

Spontaneous bandh in Gulbarga Dt.

Beedi workers feel ignored by Centre, State

Leaders mourn Nagappa's death

There is nothing to gloat over State's HR record

Krishna govt. must resign: BJP