Bengaluru: BJP Member of Parliament Pragya Singh Thakur told a religious convention in Karnataka Sunday that Hindus should keep their knives sharp against those who practised “love jihad” in the state.
“Those who do ‘love jihad’, should be given a similar response. Keep your girls safe, strengthen their values, and keep weapons in your homes,” Thakur told the Hindu Jagrana Vedike’s south regional convention in Shivamogga, about 350 kilometres from Bengaluru.
Thakur urged the crowd to keep their vegetable knives sharp if there was no weapon at home. “They stabbed our Harsh with knives… they have stabbed and cut up our brave workers from Bajrang Dal, BJP, Yuva Morcha,” Thakur said in reference to the murder of activist Harsha Jingade, also known as Harsha Hindu.
The MP from Bhopal said she was not sure when they would get the opportunity to retaliate. “If our vegetables can be cut properly, surely the knives can cut the mouths and heads of our enemies,” she said at the convention Sunday.
Thakur’s statement follows increasing communal tension in Karnataka, which has seen several communally-charged incidents and murders in the last few months.
Ruled by the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government, the state is poised for polls next year.
Meanwhile, Sunday’s crowd – mostly youngsters from the area – applauded Thakur’s words. Several of them had reacted violently after Harsha was brutally hacked to death in February this year.
The retaliation from local youth led to unrest in several parts of Shivamogga as they pelted stones and damaged the property of those living in Muslim localities.
BJP minister K.S. Eshwarappa had also led Harsha’s funeral procession, ignoring the warnings of the district administration.
BJP leaders, including chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, had visited Harsha’s home and given Rs 25 lakh to the family – an amount matched by the party.
There have been several retaliatory murders in Karnataka this year, especially in the communally-sensitive coastal districts.
On Saturday night, shop keeper Abdul Jaleel, 43, was hacked to death by unidentified people outside his store in Mangaluru. The Karnataka Police have detained five people in connection with the murder.
There were at least three murders between 19 and 28 July in Dakshina Kannada district, which had kept the law enforcement on its toes in the region.
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