Bengaluru: To defend or not? BJP caught in bind over Reddy case

Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to be once again distancing itself  from mining baron turned politician, Janardhan Reddy, now in the dock for his alleged involvement in the Ponzi scam, with party general secretary, C T Ravi asserting on Thursday that it believed in the system and anyone accused of misconduct had to respect it too.

“But in the case of Minister D K Shivakumar and his brother, they cry foul every time the ED raids them and accuse the Union government of misusing it. But we don't say that. It was the court, which was suspicious about the state government misusing the CoD and CCB,”' he said, speaking to reporters here.

Asked if the BJP stood by its earlier stand of maintaining a distance from Mr Reddy, Mr Ravi said  there was no change in its stance. “We are neither very close to Mr Reddy and nor have we kept him at a distance. If he is a fan of the BJP, we can't stop it,”  he maintained.

On a possible  change of guard in the BJP following its debacle in the recent by-elections, Mr Ravi said no one person could be held responsible.

“It was a team effort. If the party wants to change the state unit president, the decision will have to be taken by the parliament board,'' he explained.

Standing by the party's stand on the Sabarimala issue, Mr Ravi said  it was not a picnic spot for anyone to take a decision on. "This is about  tradition. If Sabarimala had totally banned the entry of women, then it would have been wrong. If a temple does not allow someone to enter just because he belongs to a certain community, that would be wrong. But in this case tradition says  women between 10 and 50 years of age cannot enter Sabrimala. Before taking a decision on the issue, the Supreme Court should have held a meeting with the custodians of this tradition,'' Mr Ravi contended.