Home Minister Priyank Kharge (left) and BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra. File photos. Image: X/@PriyankKharge; Video screenshot
Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP president B.Y. Vijayendra has accused Home Minister Priyank Kharge of travelling to Kerala to “peddle fake narratives and spread lies” before a Muslim Youth League audience instead of addressing law-and-order concerns in Karnataka.
Vijayendra listed knives being delivered to the official residence of Opposition Leader Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, the alleged sting operation targeting a former Chief Minister, and serious questions over police accountability, and said all of them demand the Home Minister’s immediate attention.
He said Kharge’s promise at a political rally in Kerala to put those accused in the Gauri Lankesh and M.M. Kalburgi murder cases behind bars within six months “raises serious questions about his respect for judicial independence”. “Trials are decided by courts, not political pronouncements from campaign platforms,” he said.
Both murders took place in 2015 and 2017, when the Congress was in power in Karnataka, Vijayendra said. “The same Congress that failed to prevent these heinous murders now wants to lecture others on justice and accountability,” he said.
He asked the Home Minister to answer for the failures of his own party in Karnataka before delivering “political sermons” in Kerala. “Justice cannot be a political weapon, and the Home Minister’s office is not a platform for settling political scores,” he said.
Kharge made the remarks at the Muslim Youth League’s rally in Kochi on Sunday, as reported earlier. A response from Kharge to Vijayendra’s criticism was not immediately available.
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