The head of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Indian state of Karnataka has asked party members to focus on “love jihad” before sewage and transportation systems.
While meeting with workers in Mangaluru city, Karnataka BJP President and Lok Sabha MP Nalin Kumar Kateel made the remark.
“So I am urging you people, don’t speak about little concerns like roads and sewage,” the BJP MP was heard saying in a video which was viral on social media.
“We require the Bhartiya Janata Party if you are concerned about the future of your children and if you want to put an end to love jihad. We require the Bharatiya Janata Party to end love jihad,” he says in the video.
“The BJP was the one who passed a legislation against cow slaughter as well as a law prohibiting religious conversion. The BJP will be the one to pass a law prohibiting love jihad,” said Kateel.
D K Shivakumar, the Karnataka Congress chairman, criticised BJP leaders’ remarks, accusing the ruling party of attempting to polarise voters.
“They are simply preying on people’s emotions. We want jobs, we don’t want price increases to hurt people, and we’re concerned about people’s daily lives,” he said.
While addressing the party members, Kateel asserted that Union Home Minister Amit Shah made a brave choice in outlawing the Popular Front of India (PFI) and Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD) in the wake of the murder of BJP worker Praveen Nettaru and if the organisations had not been outlawed, BJP leaders Monappa Bhandary and Harikrishna Bantwal would have perished by now.
Kateel anticipated that the BJP would win 150 seats in the next state Assembly elections.
“However, our victory should be based on our organisational strength. “India must shift culturally, and we must win in booths to do so,” he remarked.
Another claim made by Kateel was that the Congress “is a party of terrorists.”
“Congress is a synonym for terrorism. It is intellectually bankrupt and anti-national, he claimed.
“Karnataka would become a haven for terrorism if the Congress won the election,” he said.
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