"The Gauri Lankesh murder probe is taking more time as it's a well planned and executed murder," Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Vice-President Prof KE Radhakrishna said.
He along with BJP spokesperson and MLA Dr Ashwath Narayan and Karnataka AAP convenor Prithvi Reddy debated over the extreme politicisation of Lankesh's murder in The Talk with Danish Manzoor, Executive Editor, International Business Times, India Edition.
When asked why the Congress made veiled attempts to pin the blame on right-wing groups, he said: "the party should refrain from such statements." But he later questioned why such murders take place. "These murders happen because 'they' want to kill a thought process. Silence the voices," he added.
In an indirect jibe at BJP, Radhakrishna asked who is responsible for the atmosphere of hatred in the society where divisive politics are thriving?
BJP spokesperson Ashwath Narayan responded saying the ruling Congress had failed completely in maintaining law and order in the state and accused the government of appeasing anti-national forces by withdrawing cases against PFI and SDPI.
Karnataka AAP Convenor Prithvi Reddy condemning all murders called Gauri Lankesh's murder 'a symptom and not the disease'. He recalled how a BJP MLA from Sringeri, on a public platform, said Gauri Lankesh would have been alive if she hadn't spoken against RSS, BJP.
Upcoming elections & Social Media
When asked how was Congress planning to counter BJP's IT-intensive voter connect strategy in Karnataka, Radhakrishna said the Congress party, too, has created booth-level WhatsApp groups at par with BJP, which is known to have a sophisticated IT and social media team.
When AAP was asked about their social media strategy, Prithvi Reddy said it was very strange that the political discourse has been reduced to the issue of WhatsApp & Social Media.
"Why are we not addressing the real issues at the ground?" he asked. Bangalore, once a garden city is turning into a garbage city, farmers are in distress and education is being ignored," he said.
