Mangaluru (The Hindu): Mattar Ratnakar Hegde, president of the Udupi district unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said on Monday that Minister for Forests and Environment B. Ramanath Rai should resign for reportedly pressuring Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police Bhushan Borase to arrest RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat in connection with group clashes in Kalladka village.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Hegde said that it was shocking that Mr. Rai, as a Minister, was found directing Mr. Borase to book a case under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code. The clip of Mr. Rai, purportedly giving such instructions, had gone viral on the social media. This was nothing but murder of democracy, Mr. Hegde said.

It also showed that Mr. Rai lacked common sense as to when a criminal case could be booked. Mr. Borase had reportedly told the Minister that the drug mafia was behind the Kalladka group clashes. It was strange that Mr. Rai could not understand Mr. Bhat properly. Mr. Bhat was one of the Hindutva icons, he said.

Mr. Rai should accept moral responsibility for his illegal directions and resign from his post. Failing which, Mr. Siddaramaiah should drop him from the Cabinet, he said.

Ever since the Congress came to power in the State, it was using the Police Department for political purposes. Such was the pressure being put on the police that a Deputy Superintendent of Police M.K. Ganapati committed suicide, while another officer of the same rank Anupama Shenoy resigned from service. Besides, there were several other incidents of police personnel expressing unhappiness with the State government, he said.

Mr. Hegde said that Mr. Siddaramaiah should apologise to the people of the State for not accompanying President Pranab Mukherjee to the Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple on Sunday, which he termed “breach of protocol”.

Mr. Siddaramaiah had deliberately given the programme a miss because he did not want to visit the temple, he said.

“Mr. Siddaramaiah has deliberately insulted the Hindu community and the people of Udupi district by staying away from the Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple, so he should tender an apology,” he said.

K. Suresh Nayak, Katapady Shankar Poojary, Ravi Amin, BJP leaders, were present.