NEW DELHI: Seeking to turn the tables on the opposition alliance over the Prajwal Revanna case, Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday accused Karnataka deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar of allowing the JD(S) MP to leave the country as he reckoned that taking immediate action could cost Congress.
“We have taken a clear stand. We must take the strictest steps and if Karnataka govt cannot, then let it be.We will take action. Until the vokkaliga voting was done, they suppressed the whole thing. And as soon as voting was over, they brought it out, and by then he had fled. I am telling you, if they had taken steps in time, he wouldn’t have been able to flee and would have been arrested,” Shah said.
He pointed out that Shivakumar, the deputy CM, was a vokkaliga like Revanna. “The agency actually belongs to whom, in Karnataka it’s with Congress. They were supposed to investigate and would have known. I am clearly accusing. They suppressed it until the Vokkaliga voting was over,” he added.
NDA will cross 400 by 1pm on June 4, Amit Shah says
In an interview with Times Now Navbharat, Amit Shah justified the police investigation against those accused of circulating a video which was doctored to make it appear that he had called for scrapping Dalit quota, saying those who edit and distort videos to influence elections must be ready to face the consequences. “Police will investigate, and everyone should cooperate with the investigation. And then they will say no, no, no, the agencies have come upon us, and they start crying, so brother why did you edit? You cooperate now,” he said.
Shah mocked the opposition for its allegations about EVMs being faulty, and said the voting machines were highly secure and could not be tampered with by any external force.
“If they lose, they blame EVMs and if they win, they accept it wholeheartedly. Don’t take the oath after winning. After all, it is the same EVM? The faulty EVM. Should they be taking oath after winning with faulty EVMs? Rahul Gandhi should say whether he will take oath as the winner from Wayanad?” he added.
To a question about BJP “playing politics” on alleged sexual oppression of women in Sandeshkhali in Bengal by TMC functionaries, Shah emphasised HC had ordered a CBI probe into the incident. “Is HC playing politics?” he asked, adding that it was the “height of appeasement” that the culprit accused of exploiting hundreds of women right under the nose of a woman CM was not arrested until the court order.
He also justified former Calcutta HC judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay contesting the poll as a BJP candidate. He said hundreds of people, ministers in Indira Gandhi’s ministry had done this. “Any judicial officer, after leaving their job, can join any party. This is not the first time this has happened. But if we do it, the question only arises then,” he said.
Asked about NDA’s ambitious aim of winning 400 seats, Shah said the alliance would definitely win 400 seats. “By 1pm on 4th June, the people will bless Narendra Modi for the third time as PM with a majority of over 400 seats,” he added.
On the opposition’s allegations of foul play after BJP candidates got elected unopposed, he said so far 37 people had been elected unopposed, most of them from Congress. “What about when Yashwantrao Chavan won, when Farooq Abdullah won, when Dimple Yadav (SP boss Akhilesh Yadav’s wife), was elected unopposed. They cannot handle even people in their own parties and describe every defeat as an attack on democracy,” he said.
About the party’s explorations in the south, Shah said BJP would be a bigger party than Congress. “In Tamil Nadu, BJP will open its account. We will also be elected in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka,” he said.
“We have taken a clear stand. We must take the strictest steps and if Karnataka govt cannot, then let it be.We will take action. Until the vokkaliga voting was done, they suppressed the whole thing. And as soon as voting was over, they brought it out, and by then he had fled. I am telling you, if they had taken steps in time, he wouldn’t have been able to flee and would have been arrested,” Shah said.
He pointed out that Shivakumar, the deputy CM, was a vokkaliga like Revanna. “The agency actually belongs to whom, in Karnataka it’s with Congress. They were supposed to investigate and would have known. I am clearly accusing. They suppressed it until the Vokkaliga voting was over,” he added.
NDA will cross 400 by 1pm on June 4, Amit Shah says
In an interview with Times Now Navbharat, Amit Shah justified the police investigation against those accused of circulating a video which was doctored to make it appear that he had called for scrapping Dalit quota, saying those who edit and distort videos to influence elections must be ready to face the consequences. “Police will investigate, and everyone should cooperate with the investigation. And then they will say no, no, no, the agencies have come upon us, and they start crying, so brother why did you edit? You cooperate now,” he said.
Shah mocked the opposition for its allegations about EVMs being faulty, and said the voting machines were highly secure and could not be tampered with by any external force.
“If they lose, they blame EVMs and if they win, they accept it wholeheartedly. Don’t take the oath after winning. After all, it is the same EVM? The faulty EVM. Should they be taking oath after winning with faulty EVMs? Rahul Gandhi should say whether he will take oath as the winner from Wayanad?” he added.
To a question about BJP “playing politics” on alleged sexual oppression of women in Sandeshkhali in Bengal by TMC functionaries, Shah emphasised HC had ordered a CBI probe into the incident. “Is HC playing politics?” he asked, adding that it was the “height of appeasement” that the culprit accused of exploiting hundreds of women right under the nose of a woman CM was not arrested until the court order.
He also justified former Calcutta HC judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay contesting the poll as a BJP candidate. He said hundreds of people, ministers in Indira Gandhi’s ministry had done this. “Any judicial officer, after leaving their job, can join any party. This is not the first time this has happened. But if we do it, the question only arises then,” he said.
Asked about NDA’s ambitious aim of winning 400 seats, Shah said the alliance would definitely win 400 seats. “By 1pm on 4th June, the people will bless Narendra Modi for the third time as PM with a majority of over 400 seats,” he added.
On the opposition’s allegations of foul play after BJP candidates got elected unopposed, he said so far 37 people had been elected unopposed, most of them from Congress. “What about when Yashwantrao Chavan won, when Farooq Abdullah won, when Dimple Yadav (SP boss Akhilesh Yadav’s wife), was elected unopposed. They cannot handle even people in their own parties and describe every defeat as an attack on democracy,” he said.
About the party’s explorations in the south, Shah said BJP would be a bigger party than Congress. “In Tamil Nadu, BJP will open its account. We will also be elected in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka,” he said.
Source Agencies
