After Bengaluru south MP Tejasvi Surya courted controversy by taking the names of 17 Muslim employees working at Covid-19 war room at South Bengaluru in connection with the “bribe for bed” scam, Congress leader DK Shivakumar hit back at him today. But while slamming the BJP leader for linking the Muslim men with the scam, the Karnataka Congress President ended up stereotyping Muslims as butchers, mechanics and puncture fixers.
Slamming Tejasvi Surya for taking names of Muslim employees in connection with the bribe for bed scam, DK Shivakumar asked Surya where he will go if his car breaks down, his tyre punctures, or his bicycle breaks, or from where he will buy meat.
“If they don’t slaughter meet, where will he get the meet? If they don’t run the puncture shop, he cannot drive your vehicle. If they don’t run mechanic shops, you cannot ride bicycle/motorcycle. Will people from Tejasvi Surya’s house do the repairs works?” the Congress leader asked.
He also questioned Tejasvi Surya, “Where will you go if they don’t fix puncture or repair your vehicles? Can you ever become a mechanic like them?”
DK Shivakumar also said that Surya was communalising the issue.
The BJP Yuva Morcha President had taken the names while visiting the South Bengaluru Covid-19 war room on Wednesday. He had questioned the qualifications of the 17 employees working at the war room during his expose of the Covid-19 bed scam. Bommanahalli BJP MLA M Sathish Reddy and Basavanagudi MLA Ravi Subramanya had accompanied him. Subramanya was heard asking the officials, “Have you appointed these people for Madrassa or the Corporation (BBMP)?”
Congress party has launched an attack against the BJP leaders after the video of their comments went viral, and has been demanding their arrest.
On the other hand, the agency managing the war room has suspended the 17 employees pending the enquiry in the case is over.
The BBMP-Bed Scam:
The massive scam came to light after Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya, along with three other BJP MLAs – Satish Reddy, Ravi Subramanya, and Uday Garudachar had stormed into the BBMP war room in Bengaluru on Tuesday to expose the illegal bed-allotment nexus between civic officials and private agents.
The BJP MP had alleged that some officials in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had joined hands with the touts to book hospital beds in the name of people under home isolation while selling these beds to other patients in need at an exorbitant price.
Addressing the press conference, Surya had said that there are enough beds in Bengaluru city. However, the war room personnel had been running a racket of false blocking the beds. They were then allotting those beds to the people in exchange for money. He added that there was a nexus between BBMP officials, Aarogya Mitra hospitals and private agents who were indulging in the said crime.
Further, Surya had questioned the hiring process of 17 individuals and asked about the agency that they belonged to. Some of the names he enquired about while confronting BBMP officials are Mansoor Ali, Tahir Ali Khan, Sadiq Pasha, Md Zayed, Alsai Saheer, Umer Khan, Salman Urif, Zameer Pasha, Zabiullah Khan, Sayed Hasnain, Sayed Shahid, Sayeed Shahbaz, Md Yunus, Syed Mohin and Syed Mukesh.
