Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], August 22 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State President and MLA B Y Vijayendra Yediyurappa on Friday stated that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who once forced a complainant in the Dharmasthala issue to wear a mask, are now in a situation where they themselves must run around wearing masks.

Speaking to the media in Bengaluru on Friday, the State President remarked that after digging several pits and finding nothing, both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar are now visibly nervous. 'The complainant's mask has already fallen off, and now the CM and DyCM are struggling to cover their own faces,' he said.

Vijayendra further declared, 'We have already announced our agitation. We will wage a Dharma Yuddha (battle for Dharma) to protect our faith.' He further alleged that Siddaramaiah, under pressure from specific Leftist forces, had ordered an SIT probe into the Dharmasthala matter.

'We welcomed the investigation. The Chief Minister imagined that by digging pits, some big scandal would be unearthed. But even after digging 15-16 pits, they found nothing,' he said.

Vijayendra accused the Congress government of acting 'irresponsibly with the sole intention of hurting Hindu religious sentiments.'

'The government is not taking any action against the complainant or the evil forces behind him. For the past 15-20 days, malicious propaganda is being spread on social media against the Dharmasthala temple, yet no inquiry has been initiated. On the other hand, if Hindu activists post anything online, they are arrested within 24 hours,' he charged.

He recalled that during the COVID-19 crisis, 36 people had died in Chamarajanagar district due to oxygen shortage.

'At that time, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, along with Rahul Gandhi, politicised those deaths during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. They even promised government jobs to the families of the deceased. It has been more than two and a half years since Congress came to power, yet have those jobs been given?' Vijayendra questioned.

Referring to the stampede tragedy at Chinnaswamy Stadium during the RCB victory celebration, where 11 lives were lost, Vijayendra said, 'I expected the Chief Minister to address the Assembly with seriousness and emotion. Instead, he chose to narrate a 'Harikatha' (storytelling) filled with unrelated statistics of deaths worldwide. The BJP does not politicise deaths. But it is the Congress that has a history of doing so.'

He further alleged, 'Isn't it true that to cover up their own failures in the stadium tragedy, the government made an innocent police officer the scapegoat? Isn't that an insult to the entire police department?'

Vijayendra accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of preemptively holding RCB, KSCA, DNA, and police officials responsible for the stampede. 'In this entire episode, the real accused No. 1 is Siddaramaiah himself, followed by D K Shivakumar. To cover up their blunders, they resort to dramatic speeches,' he alleged.

Taking a dig at the Chief Minister's earlier initiatives, Vijayendra said, 'You had even planned a victory celebration near Vidhana Soudha. At that time, did you not know how many Kannadigas were actually in the RCB team? You and your family happily posed for selfies with them. Now, suddenly, you are questioning the team's representation of Karnataka? These double standards are laughable.' (ANI)