Remark on terror arrests: BJP asks CM to sack Dinesh Amin Mattu

Bengaluru, Jan 25: A reported statement by Dinesh Amin Mattu, media adviser to the Chief Minister, that it had become common of late to arrest “some persons” on Republic Day and Independence Day, has ruffled the feathers of the Bharatiya Janata Party which has urged Siddaramaiah to clarify whether he would subscribe to such a view.

Maintaining that Mr. Mattu was subscribing to his ideology instead of the interests of the State, BJP spokesperson S. Suresh Kumar has said that he should not continue as media adviser to the Chief Minister if he wanted to propagate his “ideology”

Similarly, BJP State president Pralhad Joshi has alleged that Mr. Mattu’s statement had indicated that the State government was trying to give a communal colour to the arrest of six persons on the charge of having terrorist links.

Mr. Joshi told presspersons in Hubballi that Mr. Mattu’s remarks would demoralise the police.

Meanwhile when contacted by The Hindu , Mr. Mattu clarified that he had never said that the arrests of terror suspects on the eve of Republic Day or Independence Day were being made to create a fear psychosis to help nurture Hindu fundamentalism. He added that he had not even questioned the arrests and had only expressed concern over the trend of not following up on the arrests.

On the other statement that Muslim fundamentalism had arisen due to the fear of insecurity and Hindu fundamentalism due to “arrogance”, he said that he was trying to emphasise the need to analyse the reasons for the growth of fundamentalism in a bid to take effective measures to curb them.