Arrest after beef-behead threat to CM

Bangalore, Nov. 3: A BJP politician in Karnataka was arrested this evening on the charge of threatening to behead chief minister P.C. Siddaramaiah if he dared eat beef.
S.N. Channabasappa, former president of the Shimoga civic body, has been charged under penal code sections 153 (want on provocation with intent to cause rioting), 353 (criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
The state BJP distanced itself from Channabasappa's alleged comment, calling it his "personal view" and describing him as "just one of the 80 lakh (BJP) workers". But party sources admitted that he was a former secretary of the BJP's Shimoga district unit.
Channabasappa had issued the alleged threat yesterday at a party rally, held to protest Siddaramaiah's recent remark that no one could stop him if he wanted to eat beef.
Slaughter of cows and calves is banned in Karnataka but it is legal to slaughter bulls and oxen and sell and eat their meat. A large chunk of the population in the bigger cities and coastal districts eats beef.
Channabasappa has been part of an anti-beef campaign by the Bajrang Dal and the VHP that has so far not led to any violence in the state.
Siddaramaiah refused to be drawn into a debate over the alleged threat against him but said Channabasappa had indeed made a "provocative statement". "I have asked police to investigate and see if he really said so," he said in Bangalore.
He said the government would act against anyone proved to have issued such provocations. "These people (the BJP) are known for their intolerance," he added.
Shimoga superintendent of police Ravi Channannavar said the arrest followed an FIR, registered on a complaint from district Congress president Prasanna Kumar.
He said investigators had watched a video clip of Channabasappa making the purported threat and interrogated the politician before arresting him.
A video clip uploaded on social media sites purports to show Channabasappa making the threat.
"The chief minister is behaving like a dictator. He recently said he would eat beef. Let him eat beef at Gopi Circle (a central location) in Shimoga. If he does so, he will be beheaded," goes the audio.
"With his statement, the Congress leader has hurt the sentiments of Hindus who have all grown up drinking cow's milk."
Media reports from Shimoga said that shortly before his arrest, Channabasappa today repeated his "open challenge" to Siddaramaiah. He said it was the chief minister rather than he himself who had made provocative statements.
The complainant has described Channabasappa as secretary of the Shimoga BJP but the state BJP office in Bangalore denied he held any office.
"He is just one of the 80 lakh workers (of the BJP) in Karnataka," party spokesperson S. Prakash said.
"It is his personal view and the party doesn't endorse it at all. But since he made that irresponsible statement at a party rally, our state president (Prahlad Joshi) will seek an explanation from him."

It is good that the above person has been arrested.
Would he have been arrested if a lesser mortal was threatened?
If that had been the case, Dadri would never have occurred.
Further, he was arrested, because it was a Congress ruled state.
Would be have been arrested if it was ruled by the TMC or AIADMK or the BJP?
The Congress and CPM is partly to be blamed for this.
When provocative statements were made by Raj Thackeray against people of UP and Bihar, he should have been arrested.
However the Congress allowed him to spit venom as it served their purpose of weakening the two cousins, Raj and Uddhav.
Earlier, when the SC gave its verdict in the Shah bano cse, Rajiv Gandhi brought in an amendment which protected the muslims the right to bully their women.
Then the CPM, banned Tasilma Nasrin's book as it was banned in Bangla Desh.
All have played politics to win the Muslim vote bank.
I suppose the pendulum has now swung to the other extreme