Mangaluru: Former minister B Ramanath Rai has slammed the BJP leaders for using the Congress party as a scapegoat to cover up the mistakes of the BJP-led state government.

Speaking to the reporters here on Sunday, December 22, Rai said, “The state government has failed to maintain law and order in the state. The police clamped prohibitory orders on the city even though there was no need for such measures, in order to stifle the democratic rights of the people. Both the Chief Minister and state home minister should be held responsible for the deaths of two innocent people in the police firing.”

Meanwhile, Rai demanded that a judicial inquiry be conducted into the police firing incident. “A judicial inquiry, led by a High Court judge, should be conducted into the incident. The BJP leaders have been making provocative speeches for political mileage, while the Congress leaders have not done so. Both MPs Nalin Kumar Kateel and Shobha Karandlaje are live examples of this and now, they are blaming the Congress leaders for the violence,” he said, referring to the blame being assigned to MLA U T Khader for the violence in the city.

District Congress president Hareesh Kumar, MLC Ivan D’Souza, Congress leaders Abdul Ravoof, A C Vinayraj, Shashidhar Hegde, Ashok D K, Sudheer T K and others were present.