NEW DELHI, Nov 14: A BJP Member of Parliament from Karnataka wants a road-side bus stand in his state demolished just because its roof looks like the top of a mosque because of a large dome in the middle and two small ones on its two sides.
The MP Pratap Simha has courted controversy for saying he will bulldoze the bus stand because it looks like a mosque. Simha, who represents the Mysore-Kodagu Lok Sabha constituency, said he would himself bulldoze the bus stand, which is on the Mysuru-Ooty Road, if the administration doesn’t get it done.
“I’ve seen it on social media. The bus stand has two domes, a big one in the middle and a small one beside it. That’s a masjid only. I’ve told engineers 3-4 days’ time is there. If not, I’ll only bring JCB (excavator) and demolish them,” he said.
Mr Simha is not new to communally charged controversies. When the state’s hijab ban led to massive protests recently, he had asked the students wearing the hijab to go to ‘madrassa’ for which the government has set aside funds, instead of going to a school.
“Everyone comes to college to be able to secure a good job, but these students want to come to college to sport their hijabs. If you want, you (students) wear a hijab or a burkha or a skull cap or pyjamas. But, don’t go to school, go to a madrassa then. Respecting your sentiments, the government has set aside funds for the running of madrassas. You visit them,” he had said.
Mr Simha had also slammed the Karnataka government’s birthday celebrations of Tipu Sultan starting in 2015. He had said Tipu Sultan could be a “role model only for Islamists” and that the then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was “encouraging Jihadists” in the state. He had in 2019 posted a derogatory article against multilingual film actor Prakash Raj, which he had later “regretted” and withdrew his comments from Twitter and Facebook “unequivocally.” The then Mysuru MP had made personal attacks on social media against Prakash Raj’s family and his career, following which the actor had filed a defamation case.
(Manas Dasgupta)