The police in Karnataka have registered an FIR against RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat over a speech for allegedly promoting enmity between different communities and insulting the modesty of women. The speech was delivered during a programme held near Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district on October 20, based on which the FIR was registered on October 25.
The complainant in the case, Eshwari Padmunja, accuses Bhat of making provocative remarks targeting women and minority communities. In her complaint, she highlighted parts of his speech where Bhat said that Hindu women were ridiculed for having more than two children. He contended that when a Hindu woman had three children, someone from the community ridiculed her for “giving birth like dogs”. However, a Muslim woman having seven kids is not ridiculed in the same manner, he said.
Claiming that several Hindu women did not want children, Bhat suggested that Hindu women should have at least three children. “If we don’t have children, who will go to the temples?” he said in his speech.
In another part of his address, Bhat referred to a survey that said that a Muslim woman, aged 46-47, had 13 children while being pregnant with another baby.
The Puttur rural police booked Bhat and the event’s organisers under sections 79, 196, 299, 302, and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deal with insulting the modesty of women, promoting enmity between different religions, and uttering words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings of any person.
The police have also summoned him for an inquiry on October 30.
Bhat is no stranger to controversy. He was booked several times in the past for his comments. In June, Bhat secured interim relief restraining the police from taking “coercive action” against him following an FIR registered over alleged hate speech.