Vijayapura: In a controversial statement a senior BJP leader and Vijayapura MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal remarked that had he been the Union Home Minister he would have ordered the police to shoot intellectuals, whom he branded as “anti-nationals”.
He was speaking at a function organised on the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas.
“These people (intellectuals) live in this country and use all the facilities for which we pay tax. Then they raise slogans against the Indian Army. Our country faces more danger from intellectuals and seculars than anyone else. If I become the Home Minister, then I will order to shoot all of the intellectuals,” he said amid cheers from the crowd.
This is not the first instance when the leader was found to be making a controversial statement. On an earlier occasion too Yatnal, who has had a long association with the BJP had told local party municipal members not to help Muslims.
Reacting to Yatnal’s statements, KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao said that this was a reflection of the BJPs mindset. “This is actually what they believe in and what they think that to achieve their goals any amount of deaths and violence is a given and they will use any method to propagate their ideology,” Rao was quoted speaking to India Today.
He demanded that the BJP and the state government initiate action against Yatnal for issuing these kinds of open threats.