While the Congress accused the BJP of attempting to "divert attention from Parliament security breach", the BJP deemed it breakdown of law and order.
Published Dec 17, 2023 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 17, 2023 | 9:00 AM
BJP National Party President JP Nadda's 5-member fact-finding team inspecting the electric pole where the victim was tied after being stripped and paraded naked in Belagavi district in Karnataka
The Karnataka shocker — where a 40-year-old woman was stripped and paraded naked in a village named Hosa Vantamuri in the Belagavi district in the early hours of 11 December — has begun to create political ripples, with both the Congress and the BJP at the receiving end.
While the ruling Congress alleged that the Opposition BJP was politicising the incident to divert public attention from the recent Parliament security breach, Karnataka BJP spokesperson Mahesh G told South First that the Congress’ interpretation was not true.
This came after Priyank Kharge, a Karnataka minister and son of All India Congress Committee national president Mallikarjun Kharge, slammed the fact-finding committee that the BJP sent to take a look at the Belagavi incident.
Kharge also sought to know why the BJP had not sent similar committees to probe incidents of crimes against women in states ruled or administered by the saffron party.
The 40-year-old woman in Belagavi was allegedly stripped and paraded naked by a group of 10-15 men from the village after her son eloped with a girl from the same community (Nayak).
It is claimed that the jurisdictional Kakati police station was informed about the Belagavi incident around 4 am on 11 December, and a police sub-inspector along with his team rushed to the spot, freed the woman, and clothed her.
She was then taken to a hospital where she was admitted and administered treatment.
By around 7 am, a team of police had arrested eight people in connection with the case after identifying them from CCTV footage and through local inquiries. They also launched a manhunt for the remaining eight-odd people who were involved in the incident.
Soon after, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah termed the incident “extremely inhuman” and said strict action would be taken against the offenders.
He later posted on X: “This has made the whole society bow its head in shame. Our government will not tolerate such heinous acts for any reason. Several people have already been arrested in connection with the case. It is our full responsibility to provide justice to the aggrieved family by taking action to ensure that the culprits are punished severely.”
Home Minister G Parameshwara also visited the village and reassured the victim and her family that justice would be ensured. Parameshwara was attending the Assembly session in Belagavi.
Laxmi Hebbalkar visited the village a day later and met with the family members of the victim, also assuring them that justice would be done.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday, 15 December, slammed the Congress government in Karnataka for allowing atrocities against the women and the downtrodden — particularly those belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs).
“In @INCIndia there is no ‘nyay’ for the SCs and STs. The recent incident in Belagavi, Karnataka falls in the same category as those repeated atrocities against the Dalits seen till recently in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. For Congress the downtrodden are just a vote bank.” the finance minister posted.
In @INCIndia there is no ‘nyay’ for the SCs and STs. The recent incident in Belgavi, Karnataka falls in the same category as those repeated atrocities against the Dalits seen till recently in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. For Congress the downtrodden are just a… pic.twitter.com/TT3r3ayhnQ
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) December 15, 2023
Meanwhile, the Karnataka police, which formed a special inquiry team to further probe the incident, learnt that there was negligence on the part of the Kakati Police Station’s Inspector Vijay Kumar Sinnur. He was placed under suspension indefinitely pending the inquiry.
BJP national president JP Nadda formed a five-member fact-finding committee that flew down to the Belagavi district and met with the victim’s family who narrated their ordeal to the team. The committee members also inspected the electric pole to which the 40-year-old victim was tied.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka High Court took up a suo-motu case over the incident. It termed the incident worse than what had happened to Draupadi in the Mahabaratha, as Lord Krishna came to the rescue of the mythological queen, but no one came to help the Belagavi victim. The modern world was of Dushasana, the court observed.
The BJP also staged statewide demonstrations in all districts in Karnataka condemning the incident.
In Bengaluru, members of the BJP Mahila Morcha staged a sit-in protest at the Mekhri Circle near the Palace Grounds on Saturday.
The BJP activists started their protest at 10.30 am, and apparently had plans to lay siege to Home Minister G Parameshwara’s residence.
However, since the permission for the protest was given by the police for 11 am at Freedom Park, all the agitators were bundled in a bus and taken into preventive custody.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders told South First that the BJP was politicising the Belagavi incident to divert the attention of the masses from the major security breach at the newly constructed Parliament building in New Delhi.
“Five people were involved in intruding into Parliament with gas canisters hidden in their shoes. Out of them, two managed to secure passes from Lok Sabha member Pratap Simha. There are rumours that another Karnataka MP was involved in issuing visitor passes to the other three accused persons,” Congress leader and Karnataka Minister of IT and BT and Science and Technology Priyank Kharge told South First.
“The BJP is attempting to politicise the Belagavi incident, which was the result of a family feud (the elopers belonged to the same community), to divert the attention (from the Parliament security breach). The Belagavi incident is no doubt condemnable and unfortunate, but the state has done whatever it could,” he added.
Meanwhile, Kharge took to X (formerly Twitter) and sought to know if the BJP had sent such fact-finding missions for other incidents, like:
Kharge also noted that no fact-finding team was sent by the BJP when the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni mowed down farmers in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri in October 2021.
Be it Hathras, Unnao (UP), Muzaffarpur shelter home case (Bihar), or Kathua, no fact-finding teams were sent by the BJP to investigate these horrors, he added.
“But, a BJP ‘fact-finding’ team is in Karnataka on the Belagavi issue, for which the Karnataka government has already taken swift action against the perpetrators of a family feud. This is to divert attention from the fact that BJP Mysuru MP issued pass for the #ParliamentAttack and to hide the incompetence of #ModiSarkar ? Why hasn’t HM @AmitShah made a statement yet?” Kharge alleged.
BJP DID NOT send a fact finding mission:
– When in Sept, a 13-year-old girl, was seen bleeding and begging for help in the streets of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, after being brutally raped.
– When unspeakable brutalities took place against women and children in Manipur.
– When…
— Priyank Kharge / ಪ್ರಿಯಾಂಕ್ ಖರ್ಗೆ (@PriyankKharge) December 16, 2023
Responding to Kharge’s statements, Karnataka BJP spokesperson G Mahesh told South First that the state minister could not claim it was a diversionary tactic.
“Both are different issues, and both incidents are condemnable. For the Parliament security breach incident, the law will take its course. However, in Karnataka, the past six-seven months — after the Congress came to power — law and order have collapsed,” he said.
“They (the Congress) are busy in commission-making work, making money for themselves and the high command and for funds for elections in other states,” added the BJP spokesperson.
“The Congress government is insensitive. The village where the incident happened was only 20 km from where the winter session of the Assembly was going on in Belgavi. The CM and DGP were all in the district, even then, none visited the village where such a horrendous crime had happened. This shows Congress’ apathy towards Dalit communities,” Mahesh told South First.
