Proper-wing hardliner and Karnataka MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal has triggered a row as an allegedly doctored video confirmed him saying that Dalit girls shouldn’t provide floral tributes to goddess Chamundeshwari and that solely girls from the “Sanatan faith” are allowed to take action.
The MLA’s alleged comment, made in reference to the controversy over Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq inaugurating the state authorities’s Dasara festivities this 12 months, has attracted condemnation on social media platforms.
Though Yatnal allegedly made the remarks at Koppal on Monday, a video of the incident went viral on Wednesday. “Those that provide floral tributes to mom Chamundi must be from the Sanatan faith. Even peculiar Dalit girls should not allowed to take action. However (Chief Minister) Siddaramaiah has finished this (by permitting Mushtaq to inaugurate) to defile goddess Chamundeshwari,” Yatnal, who was expelled from the BJP in March, was seen saying within the allegedly doctored video.
Because the video went viral, Dalit activist Mallikarjun Pujar complained to the Koppal City police searching for motion in opposition to the MLA. “His remarks are anti-Dalit. We’ve filed a police criticism,” he stated.
The police have registered an FIR primarily based on the criticism.
Responding to the controversy, Karnataka Info Expertise/Biotechnology Minister Priyank Kharge, who hails from a Dalit neighborhood, requested whether or not Dalits weren’t a part of the Hindu faith.
“Isn’t it with this exact same angle that the President, Droupadi Murmu, was excluded from the Ram Mandir inauguration programme? Isn’t it with this identical angle that former President Shri Ram Nath Kovind was denied entry into the temple?” he stated in a put up on X.
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Kharge requested why BJP leaders who have been vocal when Siddaramaiah highlighted the inequalities in Hindu society have been silent about Yatnal’s alleged comment.
Yatnal condemns ‘virus of disinformation’
Responding to this put up, Yatnal stated on X, “The lineup of senseless clowns is unending within the Congress social gathering. Some paid pranksters of the Congress social gathering in cahoots with their bosses are depicting a doctored video, and peddling false data to achieve political mileage. The virus of disinformation can not alter information. A con artist will do something to manifest his ulterior motives. These contemptuous private jibes replicate poorly on these making them. Those that can not differentiate between a doctored video and the real one are resorting to such antics to attain political brownie factors; nevertheless, it is just making them look extremely silly.”
In one other put up, Yatnal stated that his workplace had filed a criticism in opposition to the social media handles behind the video clip.
The BJP expelled Yatnal for six years after he refused to desist from brazenly criticising veteran chief B S Yediyurappa and his son B Y Vijayendra, who’s the state social gathering chief, regardless of receiving a number of notices from the central disciplinary committee.
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Yatnal was additionally booked twice over the previous week for making provocative speeches at Maddur and Tumakuru.