Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, a BJP MLA from Vijayapura, Karnataka, has grabbed headlines again. This time for branding liberals and intellectuals as "anti-national" and for saying that he would have ordered the police to shoot them had he been the Union Home Minister. In June, the BJP MLA stirred up a controversy for reportedly asking local party municipal members to refrain from helping people from the Muslim community.
Addressing a a Kargil Vijay Diwas function in Karnataka on Thursday, 26 July, Yatnal can be heard saying:
These people (intellectuals) live in this country and use all the facilities for which we pay tax. Then they raise slogans against the Indian Army. Our country faces grave danger from intellectuals and seculars than anyone else.Basanagouda Patil Yatnal
In June, a video of the former Union minister surfaced on social media in which he was seen instructing corporators to work only for Hindus who have voted for him. PTI quoted him saying:
I had called all corporators and have told them that they should work for Hindus, and not Muslims, who have voted for me in Bijapur.Basanagouda Patil Yatnal
Yatnal was a BJP MP from Bijapur between 1999 and 2009. In 2010, he quit the BJP to join the Janata Dal (Secular) and then joined the BJP again in 2013. Yatnal served as the Union Minister of State in the Vajpayee government.
(With inputs from ANI)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)