“The BJP government had forced and put pressure on district officials occupying high posts, to act in accordance with the ideology of the party in power and to plunder the minorities during the communal riots after the attacks on churches and religious shrines in 2008. The government machinery has been grossly misused by the BJP to drive the Hindutva agenda,” said former high court judge MF Saldanha.
About the follow-up report on church attacks conducted by the fact-finding mission of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Saldanha said, “The situation prevailing at that point of time in 2008 was nothing short of the rise of Neo-Nazis in Mangalore. The BJP had persuaded the government officials to carry out its agenda with an iron fist. As a result, over 12,000 innocent persons have been arrested.
"Even today, these people — 40% of them being students— are wasting their time and money waiting in the corridors of the court for justice. Many of the arrested were daily-wage earners, petty shop owners and unemployed people who were unscrupulously picked up by the police.
"On the other hand, they have let the real perpetrators of crime against minorities go scott-free under the directions of the former home minister Dr VS Acharya.”
“The situation in Karnataka was no better than the situation during the Godhra riots. In both cases, there were gross violations of human rights carried out by the fundamentalist forces under the direct patronage of the governments in power,” he said.
