KS Eshwarappa defended his stand again today, a day after he made the comments in Shivamogga.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) today has the wherewithal to hit back if confronted with violence, Karnataka Development and Panchayat Raj Minister KS Eshwarappa has said, instantly kicking up a row. The ideological mothership of a host of political and quasi-political organisations, including the BJP, would asked its workers and associates to "keep calm at all cost" earlier, but not anymore, he said.
Mr Eshwarappa made the statement yesterday while speaking to BJP workers in his home district Shivamogga in southern Karnataka. He was referring to the RSS's alleged experience in the neighbouring state of Kerala.
"In our neighbouring state Kerala, people used to be murdered if they went to start RSS there or spoke about Hindutva. We didn't have the strength to hit back then. Today lakhs of people support the BJP," he said in Shivamogga.
"Back then, our leaders used to say 'be calm at all cost'…today it is 'face with the same stick'."
Congress's DK Shivakumar criticised the comments and said, "A minister in the BJP government is asking his party workers to use violence against political rivals."
Further explaining his stand today in Bengaluru, Mr Eshwarappa accused the television media of turning his comments in Shivamogga into a controversy.
"When Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the national president the Jan Sangh, the BJP's ideological predecessor, was murdered (in 1968) on his way back from Kerala, our leaders said, 'be calm at all cost'," Mr Eshwarappa said today. "We will not attack anybody. But if anyone comes to us, now our leaders say 'face it with the same stick'."
His party and ministerial colleagues, too, have defended the senior Karnataka BJP leader.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, "He has spoken about what happened earlier to our workers. Nothing else. The atrocities under the earlier governments...there were open murders of party or group (workers) in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Karwar, Sirsi. He is talking from that pain."
Mr Bommai said there was no provocation for violence.
State Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, too, refused to see any reason for a row over this.
"The Chief Minister has also explained the background of Eshwarappa's comment. For many years, party workers and RSS workers have been killed. There has been a lot of violence. There is no need to attribute any other meaning and make a big issue," he said.