In a shameful attempt to protect his party legislators, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has come out in support of MP Tejasvi Surya, who two days ago targeted 17 employees of the BBMP and had them removed from their jobs. Yediyurappa also slammed Congress MLA B. Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, who had blasted Surya for communalizing the COVID crisis.
On Friday, 7 May, Yediyurappa, who was visiting a temple, said, “Tejasvi Surya has risked himself and exposed the corruption. He brought it to my notice. I sat down with him and initiated action. I thank him for doing this.”
He, however, did not mention, what risk did an MP have to take to allegedly expose corruption in his own party’s government. The Chief Minister did not bother to speak about the 17 Muslim employees of BBMP, who were sacked from their jobs and interrogated by the police for hours without any reason, except for their religious identity.
Yediyurappa also came down heavily against Chamarajpet MLA B. Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, who had earlier criticised Surya for selectively targeted only the Muslim employees of the BBMP South war zone, and having them removed from their jobs.
Yediyurappa said, “It looks Zameer Khan has issues with Surya only because he exposed a corruption scandal. I request Zameer not to make such statements against Tejasvi…on behalf of the government.” He said he congratulates the Surya on the “good work” he has done.
Seventeen Muslim employees of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) War Room were sacked from their job without providing any reason, at the behest of Bangalore South MP and president of the BJP Youth Morcha Tejasvi Surya.
On Tuesday, in the video of the incident that has since gone viral, Tejasvi Surya, accompanied by BJP MLAs Satish Reddy, Ravi Subramanya, and Uday Garudachar is seen barging into a BBMP COVID war room and asking officers present if BBMP (city municipal corporation) was a Hajj Bhavan or a Madrasa to recruit Muslims.
Surya is seen asking the BBMP official what process was followed to recruit the volunteers in the COVID war room, and read out a list of 17 people, who all happened to be Muslims.
At a press conference held later in the day, Surya and the MLAs accused city municipal officials of accepting bribes to allot hospital beds and of allegedly creating artificial scarcity.
Surya is then seen asking officials to immediately sack the 17 Muslim employees and start an investigation against them. He did not furnish any reason, what their fault was, and among all the 205 employees only these 17 people should be sacked, except that they belonged to a particular community.
The 17 people were sacked immediately.
A day later, however, in a startling revelation by a newspaper, BJP MLA Satish Reddy, who was seen in a video asking if BBMP was a Hajj Bhavan or a Madrasa to recruit Muslims, and made allegations against officials for running a racket of allocating hospital beds to COVID patients in exchange for bribes was himself accused of allotting beds to his supporters in the same case.
Satish Reddy, the BJP legislator from Bommanahalli reportedly put his agents in the BBMP war room, who in turn were booking beds for his supporters. Reddy and his agents are alleged to have issued threats to officials in the war room to prioritise his supporters over others, Vijay Karnataka newspaper reported.
The paper reported that the beds were also being sold for monetary exchange to distressed patients.
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Shaik Zakeer Hussain is the Founder and Editor of The Cognate.
