Bengaluru: Amid the row over Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s statement to avoid war with Pakistan, one of his ministers has triggered another controversy, questioning how Pahalgam terrorists could have asked for a person’s religion before taking their lives.
“Anyone who is about to shoot, will be able to ask the caste (meaning religion). You only think practically. He will shoot and then run away,” excise minister R.B.Timmapur told reporters in Bagalkote Saturday.
“There were intelligence failures in Kargil, Pulwama and now this. When we ask them about this, they say that they looked a Hindu ID card and then shot them. Did they not kill a Muslim? If you want to politicise all this, where will the situation lead us to?”
Many netizens took umbrage at the statements as there have been widespread reports that the terrorists carried out the 26 killings after identifying the religion of the victims. The wife of a victim from Karnataka’s Shivamogga, too, had said that her husband was gunned down in a similar way.
Thimmapur’s comments have fuelled an already raging controversy over Siddaramaiah saying that there was no need to go to war with Pakistan. “There is no need to go to war. But we have to take strong actions and make security tighter. We are not for war,” Siddaramaiah had said Saturday.
Social media was abuzz with a news segment from a Pakistani TV channel which discussed Siddaramaiah’s statement. Several BJP leaders posted a clipping of this news, with some stating that the Karnataka chief minister would get great hospitality if he ever visited the hostile neighbour.
The Congress party maintains that there were lapses in India’s intelligence network which failed to stop the 22 April attack nor provide any security for tourists in Pahalgam.
On Sunday, Leader of the Opposition R.Ashok took potshots at Siddaramaiah, saying that he would be awarded Pakistan’s highest civilian honour Nishan-e-Pakistan as a peace ambassador for the neighbouring country.
“When the country is facing a very sensitive situation, with the threat of war looming over the border, you are not acting like a puppet of an enemy nation. The presence of people like you in public life is the biggest tragedy of our country,” he wrote in Kannada on ‘X’.
Siddaramaiah tried to clarify his statement, stating that India should go to war only if it is inevitable and that war was not the solution at this time. “What I said was that we should go to war if it’s inevitable,” the Karnataka chief minister told reporters in Mysuru Sunday, adding that it was not the solution and that he never remarked that it should never be done.
The CM later posted a long message on ‘X’, further elaborating on his comments. “War should always be a nation’s last resort — never the first, nor the only option. Only when every other means to defeat the enemy has failed, should a country be compelled to go to war…,” he asserted.
He added that the tragedy was being used by some “some mischievous elements” who were attempting to create division within the country “disturbing the peace and unity among us”.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Quota shake-up, sub caste maths & Muslim numbers, why Karnataka caste survey has Siddaramaiah in a bind
