‘Is Vijay only a Christian CM’, Karnataka BJP questions his ‘intervention’ in Chamarajanagar encounter
Bengaluru: BJP’s Karnataka President and party MLA BY Vijayendra on Tuesday questioned whether Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay was acting only as a “Christian Chief Minister” or as the Chief Minister of the entire state, while criticising his intervention in the Chamarajanagar encounter, in which three people were killed.
Vijayendra, speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, said that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has written to the Karnataka Chief Minister regarding the incident at Hanur in Chamarajanagar district. He also said that an Archbishop had written to the Karnataka Chief Minister, seeking government jobs and appropriate compensation for the families of the deceased.
Vijayendra further said that the BJP and JD(S) had raised the issue in the Assembly and demanded Rs 1 crore compensation and a government job for a family member of each of the three deceased on humanitarian grounds.
“Is it right to give a caste or religious colour to the deceased?” Vijayendra asked, referring to the reactions to the incident.
He said there had been continuing conflicts between forest-dwelling communities and forest officials, besides increasing human-animal conflicts in several parts of Karnataka.
“People in the forest-fringe areas are facing continuous conflicts with forest officials. There are also human-animal conflicts. Recently, there was a major protest in Madikeri. There are similar issues in Madikeri, Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada and the coastal regions,” he said.
Vijayendra also urged the state government and ministers to take these issues seriously and address the concerns of people living in forest-fringe areas.
Questioning the circumstances surrounding the encounter, he asked why the officials needed to resort to firing if they had gone to the forest carrying torches.
“You said they had gone carrying torches. Then why was there an encounter? Were they lions or tigers?” Vijayendra asked, alleging lapses in the operation.
He demanded that the state government acknowledge any lapses and called for a judicial inquiry into the incident.
Notably, Tamil Nadu CM Joseph Vijay had strongly condemned the August 15 killing of three Tamil men—Anthony Samy, John Rose Peter and Kumar—by Karnataka forest personnel in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, calling the incident a “massacre” and rejecting the state’s explanation of an exchange of fire during an anti-poaching operation as completely unacceptable.
The Karnataka government gave a statement in the Legislative Assembly on the matter, stating that three poachers were killed in Chamarajanagar reserve forest after the forest department personnel opened fire in self-defence when the hunters shot at them.