With increased responsibility comes increased risk. This can be evident in the recurrent killings of various BJP workers. Time and again, there have been heinous murder cases being reported in different states but based on the same communalism. A recent example can be drawn from the state of Karnataka.
Murder of a BJP worker Praveen Nettaru
Recently, a 32-year-old BJP Yuva Morcha Committee member Praveen Nettaru was hacked to death in Bellare by bike-borne assailants. This heinous incident was followed by a huge crowd gathering in front of Bellare Police station in Sulia taluk.
Following it, various members of the BJP’s youth wing in many parts of Karnataka have started mass resignations by claiming that the BJP-led state government had failed to protect the lives of party workers. BJP workers further surrounded state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel’s car to show their discord.
Praveen Nettaru was an active member in Sangh Parivar and owned a poultry shop in Bellare. The Police is suspecting the incident was a retaliation to another murder in Bellare. This has further led to an increase in security around the market and surrounding areas.
Moreover, the murder has sparked protests in Bellare and Sullia, with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad calling for a bandh. Additionally, some Islamic outfits like the Popular Front of India and the Social Democratic Party of India are allegedly suspected of the gruesome incident.
Certainly, a concerning point here includes the recurrent killings of those indulged in BJP or its ideology. There have been numerous cases where BJP workers or their supporters were violently murdered.
Cases of BJP workers getting killed
Just some time back, Rajasthan got into the headlines because of the killing of a middle-class tailor who was beheaded in the wake of supporting the former BJP leader Nupur Sharma. The murder was committed for ideological reasons.
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Apart from this, in August 2021, “The Wire” reported that 23 BJP leaders and workers were killed in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. Following this, Police sources said that hundreds of BJP workers were taken to secured accommodations while many were provided security.
Though the BJP has formed a government in the centre, its workers and leaders are forced to face a vulnerable situation, pertaining to death threats. From the recurrent incidents being reported, it is apparent that some Islamist groups, due to their ideological beliefs, have time and again targeted the BJP.
Bengal is the prime state of BJP workers’ killing
These killings can also be connected with the state of Bengal. In Mamata’s state, BJP members have often been targeted. The state has recorded incessant murder cases in light of attacking the BJP through unfair means.
As reported by TFI in 2020, BJP MLA Debendra Nath Ray was found hanging outside a closed mobile shop at Balia, Deben More in Raigunj in North Dinajpur district. The suspected murder of a BJP party man, no less than an MLA himself, had exposed the absolute freedom which has been given to political adversaries of the BJP to indulge in rampant political killings in the TMC-ruled state.
Another case happened in 2018 when a BJP worker was found hanging from an electricity pole in the Dabha village of Purulia’s Balarampur. the BJP worker had been kidnapped a few days prior to the incident. His motorcycle was found near a pond after which a police complaint was registered.
With these increasing cases, BJP should not waste any more days in curbing the merciless political killings of its workers across the country. There is an intrinsic need for the ruling party to save its workers, otherwise, it will be too late to control political communalism.