Democracy, Constitution not safe under BJP: Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru, Feb 27 (IANS) Indian democracy and the Constitution were not safe under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah here on Thursday."There is no protection to democracy and Constitution under the BJP. It's working against the principles of secularism," he said at the Karnataka Pradesh Mahila Congress workshop on the Constitution and the Citizenship Act.The BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was trying to divide the electorate on communal lines for the vote bank politics, he said."Our country has fallen into the hands of despots. More than 35 people have died in Delhi violence. There is still no case filed against Kapil Mishra for his instigating acts. The high court judge who questioned this was transferred," he said.Siddaramaiah was referring to sudden transfer of Delhi High Court Judge S. Muralidhar to the Punjab and Haryana High Court after he pulled up the Delhi Police over riots.On the central government's plans to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country, Siddaramaiah said the enumeration exercise costed Rs 1,600 crore for 3.5 crore Assam population."It will cost more than Rs 1 lakh crore to implement in the entire country. The country is facing severe economic crisis. What's the urgency for the NRC during this crisis," he said.
--IANS sth/pcj