A day after Mysore-Kodagu BJP MP Pratap Simha courted controversy and set a four-day deadline for officials to remove “mosque-like” structures atop a bus stand in Mysuru’s ward no. 54 and reiterated his threat again on Tuesday to raze it, party MLA SA Ramdas, who represents the Krishnaraja assembly constituency where the bus stand is located, indirectly slammed the parliamentarian and clarified that the idea was to build a bus stand designed like the Mysore Palace and not a structure that is inspired by any religion.
The MP was also allegedly not convinced by the placement of a kalasha (sacred pot) at the bus stand as a Hindu religious symbol and said on Tuesday that his position remains unchanged regarding the domes at the bus stand.
“I gave clear directions to officials to remove the domes immediately. Even with the ‘kalasha’, my position remains unchanged. There is a lot of difference between Indo-Saracenic architecture and Islamic architecture,” said Simha.
Ahead of the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections, MLA Ramdas, who is keen on showing his report card to the people in his constituency, after observing the stand of the MP Simha and the controversy not dying down, met chief minister Basvaraj Bommai and discussed the whole issue. He also requested the state government to set up an expert committee to review the design and said if the panel suggested changes he would have no objection.
The BJP MLA also rubbished all the allegations regarding the contractor being Muslim and filed a complaint with the Mysuru commissioner and urged for an investigation regarding all the fake news circulating on social media related to the bus stand.
Not missing out on an opportunity to attack the BJP over the bus stand row, Congress leaders accused the party of trying to stoke polarisation ahead of the elections.
“He (Simha) must not make such statements. History is what happened in the past and they (BJP) must not try to twist it. Where is it mentioned that a structure should be in a particular shape? They do this for polarisation,” said former CM Siddaramaiah.
“The Congress party works to build people’s hearts but the BJP works to damage people’s hearts. Let them (BJP) go on demolishing, we will go on building,” said another Congress leader UT Khader.
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