Thread by @churumuri

🪡 A cute question on the #HijabRow in #Karnataka is: “Why can’t the CM stop it when it’s ruining the State’s image?”

Answer: “Have you seen @BSBommai’s record?”

He was home minister for 23 months from Aug 2019. It was because he met all the KPIs that he was made @CMofKarnataka

2️⃣ @BSBommai was home minister when school children in #Bidar were charged with sedition, for a line in a play that “insulted” @narendramodi during the anti-CAA protests. Bommai had the temerity to say: “It is a very serious and sensitive case.”

Read: tinyurl.com/2p8vnuc9

3️⃣ @BSBommai is an “educated” politician, an engineer. In #Bidar, the school children charged with sedition were between 9 and 12 years of age. Najumunissa, 35, a single mother, spent a week in jail because police under Bommai’s watch charged her Class V daughter. @IndianExpress

https://twitter.com/churumuri/status/1225457520711307264

4️⃣ @BSBommai was home minister when student-activist Amulya Leone, 19, was arrested because @BlrCityPolice working under him could only hear “pro-Pakistan” slogans, when the girl had also shouted ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ four times. @DgpKarnataka

Read: tinyurl.com/2p9c6ft3

5️⃣ @BSBommai was home minister when he was caught on tape assuring a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) hate-monger Sharan ‘Pumpwell’, who faces several cases for rioting, that all cases against him would be dropped. @PumpwellSharan @DgpKarnataka

Read: tinyurl.com/yrpa5ycj

6️⃣ The video of @BSBommai’s generosity was tweeted out by @PumpwellSharan before he deleted it. Sharan, who is also convenor of Bajrang Dal’s south #Karnataka outfit, runs a company that “provides security guards to terrified property owners”.

Read: tinyurl.com/3z2wkjac

7️⃣ @BSBommai was home minister when climate activist Disha Ravi, 21, was picked up in #Bangalore by #Delhi police for sharing a #toolkit in the farmers’ protest, and charged with sedition. Bommai said: “There is nothing called protocol”, and asserted there was “enough evidence”.

8️⃣ Disha Ravi later walked free, but in a stroke of delicious irony, @BSBommai’s justification for her arrest actually violated the law as laid down by the #SupremeCourt in a 1994 judgement involving his father, the former chief minister S.R. Bommai. deccanherald.com/amp/city/benga…

9️⃣ @BSBommai was home minister when #Bengaluru police working under him suddenly detected an influx of 3 lakh illegal #Bangladeshi immigrants. In the drive to weed out घुसपैठिया, 300 shanties belonging to #Kannadigas were demolished. @DeccanHerald

Read: tinyurl.com/2p8n2as6

🔟 @BSBommai was home minister when #Karnataka used the @myogiadityanath model in the D.J. Halli case: “When there is a rioting case, the worth of public property damaged must be recovered from the persons who have committed the crime.”

Read: tinyurl.com/497v5xrn

1️⃣1️⃣ @BSBommai as chief minister has pressed other useful sangh buttons. He has passed legislation against cow slaughter and conversions. He has promised a law against love ‘jihad’. And #MunawarFaruqui hasn’t been able to cut a joke in #Bangalore.

1️⃣2️⃣ Against this backdrop, the #HijabRow—a steady drip feed of terror—might keep #Hindutva terrorists happy. But will it save @BSBommai after a mediocre stint? As it is, the #BJP government faces allegations of massive corruption. It has been labelled a “30% government”.

https://twitter.com/churumuri/status/1465921588650397696

1️⃣3️⃣ Barely a month after @BSBommai had taken over in July 2021, @AmitShah grandly announced that he would be the #BJP’s CM face for the 2023 Assembly elections in #Karnataka. At the time, it appeared like a “masterstroke” to tamp down on dissent. Not any more.

1️⃣4️⃣ A string of defeats, including in @BSBommai’s district, has led to question marks. Not a day passes without an intimation of mortality. The buzz is he will be replaced after the #UttarPradesh elections. So the #HijabRow is crucial for his KPIs.
tinyurl.com/2p8zeeup