Your conduct in past shows that talk is cheap: Siddaramaiah on Amit Shah’s ‘outrage’ over atrocities on women

PTI, May 2, 2024, 8:24 AM IST

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday took at swipe at Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s expression of outrage over the alleged sexual abuse of several women by JD(S) Lok Sabha candidate Prajwal Revanna.

Amit Shah on Wednesday said in Hubballi that the ‘BJP cannot remain with those who commit atrocities against women’, referring to the Prajwal case.

“Dear Amit Shah avare, thanks for finally expressing outrage in the #PrajwalRevanna matter,” Siddaramaiah said in a post on social media platform X.

“You have also said you don’t condone violence against women even if it is done by an ally of yours. One is tempted to believe you, but your conduct in the past has shown that talk is cheap.”

Siddaramaiah asked how anyone can forget how the Olympian wrestlers were sexually harassed by a BJP MP, Brij Bhushan Singh.

“Who did you stand with? Your MP, of course, and you let the women athletes sit in protests on the streets of Delhi for weeks,” the chief minister recalled.

Siddaramaiah said, “Can we forget how the rapist convicts of the Bilkis Bano (case) were released on parole by the Gujarat BJP government and your party men garlanded them? It took the Supreme Court to reprimand your party’s state government.”

He asked if anyone can forget how the BJP stood behind the perpetrators in the Unnao case, where a minor Dalit girl was raped and murdered.

“Can we forget how your party defended the perpetrators of rape in the Hathras case? Can we forget how the BJP turned a blind eye when women were made to parade naked in Manipur?” he asked.

He said, “Women of the nation know the truth, and it’s time for you to wake up to the reality.”

Prajwal, the grandson of former prime minister and JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda and son of former minister H D Revanna, is seeking re-election from Hassan on the JD(S) ticket.

Just before the elections, a huge cache of explicit videos and photographs, allegedly involving Prajwal indulging in the sexual abuse of several women, have gone viral on social media.

The Karnataka government constituted a SIT on the request of Karnataka State Commission for Women chairperson Nagalakshmi Chowdhary to investigate the allegations against the Hassan MP.

A case has been registered against both Revanna and his son Prajwal at Holenarasipura based on a complaint lodged by their former cook and relative for allegedly sexually harassing her. She alleged that Prajwal made video calls to her daughter and spoke in an objectionable manner, which forced her to block him.