Right-wing hardliner and Karnataka MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal has triggered a row as an allegedly doctored video showed him saying that Dalit women should not offer floral tributes to goddess Chamundeshwari and that only women from the “Sanatan religion” are allowed to do so.
The MLA’s alleged remark, made in connection with the controversy over Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq inaugurating the state government’s Dasara festivities this year, has attracted condemnation on social media platforms.
Although Yatnal allegedly made the remarks at Koppal on Monday, a video of the incident went viral on Wednesday. “Those who offer floral tributes to mother Chamundi should be from the Sanatan religion. Even ordinary Dalit women are not allowed to do so. But (Chief Minister) Siddaramaiah has done this (by allowing Mushtaq to inaugurate) to defile goddess Chamundeshwari,” Yatnal, who was expelled from the BJP in March, was seen saying in the allegedly doctored video.
As the video went viral, Dalit activist Mallikarjun Pujar complained to the Koppal Town police seeking action against the MLA. “His remarks are anti-Dalit. We have filed a police complaint,” he said.
The police have registered an FIR based on the complaint.
Responding to the controversy, Karnataka Information Technology/Biotechnology Minister Priyank Kharge, who hails from a Dalit community, asked whether Dalits were not part of the Hindu religion.
“Isn’t it with this very same attitude that the President, Droupadi Murmu, was excluded from the Ram Mandir inauguration programme? Isn’t it with this same attitude that former President Shri Ram Nath Kovind was denied entry into the temple?” he said in a post on X.
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Kharge asked why BJP leaders who were vocal when Siddaramaiah highlighted the inequalities in Hindu society were silent about Yatnal’s alleged remark.
Yatnal condemns ‘virus of disinformation’
Responding to this post, Yatnal said on X, “The lineup of mindless clowns is never-ending in the Congress party. Some paid pranksters of the Congress party in cahoots with their bosses are depicting a doctored video, and peddling false information to gain political mileage. The virus of disinformation cannot alter facts. A con artist will do anything to manifest his ulterior motives. These contemptuous personal jibes reflect poorly on those making them. Those who cannot differentiate between a doctored video and the genuine one are resorting to such antics to score political brownie points; however, it is only making them look ultra stupid.”
In another post, Yatnal said that his office had filed a complaint against the social media handles behind the video clip.
The BJP expelled Yatnal for six years after he refused to desist from openly criticising veteran leader B S Yediyurappa and his son B Y Vijayendra, who is the state party chief, despite receiving multiple notices from the central disciplinary committee.
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Yatnal was also booked twice over the past week for making provocative speeches at Maddur and Tumakuru.