Hindutva activists gheraoed BJP Lok Sabha members Pratap Simha and Tejasvi Surya in Mudigere on Thursday condemning the recent demolition of temples in the State.
They showed black flags to the people’s representatives for failing to protect the temples, even after getting elected on the Hindutva ideology.
The protesters stopped the cars of the two MPs, who were in the city to attend a private programme. The police had a tough time managing the protesters, who urged the MPs to get down from the car. The protesters posed a series of questions to the two leaders.
Mr. Pratap Simha told the protesters that he raised the issue at a meeting in Mysuru and the State government had issued notices to the Deputy Commissioner of Mysuru and Tahsildar of Mandya. “The Chief Minister has already given a clear instruction to stop the demolition of temples. We have confidence in the CM taking appropriate action”, he said.
Mr. Tejasvi Surya, MP of Bengaluru South, maintained that the demolition of temples had hurt the sentiments of devotees. The State government had taken the issue seriously. “Interestingly, now some people have developed devotion to temples. These are the people who celebrated idol-breaker Tipu’s birth anniversary when they were in power”, he commented.