Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday said that he will implement the “Yogi model” on law and order if such a situation arises, The Indian Express reported.
The chief minister was responding to a question about demands by a section of Hindutva activists that the he should emulate his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Adityanath to deal with communal forces. The demands came in the context of the killing of Praveen Nettaru, a Bharatiya Janata Party youth wing leader, on Tuesday.
“For the situation in Uttar Pradesh, Yogi [Adityanath] is the right chief minister,” Bommai said. “Similarly, there are different methods to deal with the situation in Karnataka and all of them are being used. If the situation demands, the Yogi model government will come to Karnataka too.”
The “Yogi model” that Bommai spoke about appeared to be a reference to stringent measures against those accused of crimes, including the use of bulldozers to demolish their homes.
While there are no provisions under Indian law to demolish the home of anyone accused of a crime, this pattern has been regularly observed across BJP-ruled states. Most persons whose homes have been demolished in this manner have been Muslims.
After Nettaru’s killing, some BJP workers referred to the killing of gangster Vikas Dubey in Uttar Pradesh and called for similar measures in Karnataka.
Dubey was arrested in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain city on July 9, 2020, for the murder of eight police officers in a shootout in Kanpur’s Bikru village earlier in the same month. The gangster was shot dead by the police on July 10 when he was allegedly trying to escape from their custody.
In August 2021, a Supreme Court-appointed judicial commission cleared the Uttar Pradesh Police in allegation that the shootout was staged.
Addressing reporters on Thursday, Bommai said that the Karnataka government has taken Nettaru’s murder case seriously. He added that there was no question of compromising on the law and order situation in the state and urged residents to maintain peace.
Earlier in the day, the Karnataka Police arrested two persons named Zakir and Shafiq for Nettaru’s murder.
The police suspect that the two arrested men have links with the Popular Front of India. “But we are investigating those links and also their motives,” said Additional Director General of Police (law and order) Alok Kumar.
Protests erupted against the Karnataka government and several BJP youth wing leaders resigned after Nettaru’s killing, saying that the state government had failed to protect the lives of party members. On Wednesday, protestors threw stones and attacked the car of BJP state unit chief Nalin Kumar Kateel when he was on his way to visit Nettaru’s family.
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