Karnataka deputy chief minister Dk Shivakumar on Saturday reacted to BJP leader Eshwarappa’s call to shoot and kill DK Suresh and said his brother (Suresh) is not a person who will get scared of such threats. BJP leader KS Eshwarappa called for a law that enables the killing of people like DK Suresh and MLA Vinay Kulkarni who speak of dividing the country. Congress MP DK Suresh triggered a controversy as he said Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget had nothing for Karnataka and other south states and such bias will lead to demands for a ‘separate nation’. Following this, the Karnataka and Kerala governments launched protests against insufficient fund allocation to the southern states.

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar said DK Suresh’s comment was misinterpreted while he only pointed out the discrepancies between the fund allocation for northern states and southern states. Nobody wants India to be divided, Siddaramaiah said while Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge — when the issue was raised in Parliament — said he would never support any such comment.

Amid this row, Eshwarappa said he would like to tell PM Modi that people like DK Suresh are traitors. “I suggest enacting a law where they can be shot and killed,” Eshwarappa said.

“DK Suresh isn’t the type who is scared by threats. We know how to deal with threats and we have settled many such threats in the past,” DK Shivakumar said reacting to the threat. “Every action has a consequence. He once spoke about my father in the Assembly and everyone knows what happened after that. Where is Eshwarappa today? If Eshwarappa wants to shoot DK Suresh, let him, but he is not scared of such threats,” Shivakumar said.

Siddaramaiah said Eshwarappa does not know any language other than ripping, beating and killing. “We will take legal action against him (Eshwarappa). He says he is trained in the RSS. Is this his training? He says shoot down D K Suresh. Is this the language of a leader belonging to a national party? Should we call them seasoned politicians?” the chief minister said.

FIR against Eshwarappa

An FIR was registered against Eshwarappa on Saturday for his shoot the traitor comment. Eshwarappa said he is not scared of FIRs even if hundreds such are filed against him. “I am not scared of 100 such FIRs against me on the principles related to nationalism and Hindutva,” Eshwarappa said.