Amid the raging controversy over the network of drug mafia, Congress leader B.K. Hariprasad on Sunday alleged that some senior BJP leaders were “addicted to drugs like opium”.
“They don’t step out of their house without getting a dose of opium every day,” he alleged in Belagavi on Sunday. “It is not just celebrities and film actors and businessmen who are into drugs. Several BJP leaders are addicted too,” he told journalists. He, however, said that he would not reveal their names and that he would let the investigating agencies to do their job. “The BJP has raised this bogey of drug menace only to cover up its failures in managing the economy and the COVID -19 epidemic. The only intention behind the media playing up the whole issue is to divert the attention of the public from the government’s mismanagement,” he said.
“If the focus is on Rhea Chakraborty and Kangana Ranaut to hide the failures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, in Karnataka it is Ragini and Sanjjanaa to hide the failures of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and his Ministers,” he alleged.
He also complained against the investigating agencies and the media for targeting only women as drug abusers. “Are there no men who are addicts? Why is the focus on the women only? If the police are serious, then they have to arrest the men who are kingpins and peddlers,” he said. “BJP leaders find various ways to target the minorities. It has become a fashion for its leaders to accuse Muslims of being involved in all kinds of illegal activities. Now they are targeting Zameer Ahmed Khan by tying him up with film actors, but forget that the drug peddler from Kalaburagi is associated with the BJP. If Mr. Yediyurappa is sincere, then he should publicly declare the political affiliations of the drug peddler,” he said.
Later, Mr. Hariprasad visited the All-India Congress Seva Dal training academy that is nearing completion in Ghataprabha, near Gokak. To a question, he said it would be wrong to say the Seva Dal training would be similar to RSS cadre training. “We have nothing to do with the RSS. These are two completely different organisations. We have nothing to learn from them. Their lathi is to beat others, while ours is to support others,” he said.
The academy was planned 20 years ago. Though some training activities were going on in Ghataprabha, the building was not completed. It has picked up pace after D.K. Shivakumar became KPCC president. The academy will be inaugurated on October 2, Mr. Hariprasad said.
