Learn responsibility from this home minister!

“You should take care of your children. What can we do if some goonda elements do it? We will investigate who made the girl and boy disembark from the bus and what their intention was. The father should be grateful that his daughter came back home safe.’’

This is not a statement from any ordinary person, but the honourable home minister of Karnataka V S Acharya, in response to an incident in which a Kerala MLA’s daughter was thrashed and abducted reportedly by Bajrang Dal men for talking to a ‘Muslim boy’ who is her friend’s brother!

The girl and the boy were taken to an unknown place by the goondas where she was asked not to move around or talk with a Muslim as she was a Hindu.

No home minister can be more irresponsible. Be it an ordinary girl, not an MLA’s daughter, what kind of security feeling is this minister instilling in the minds of people? The youngsters here are already under threat from the moral police who claim to protect the country’s culture. And ordinary citizen would wonder where the state is heading to.

Would the minister say the same if his daughter was abducted or thrashed in public? How can anybody feel safe when such a minister is holding the home portfolio? After a series of attacks on churches in the state that enraged the whole country, the same minister had said: “Why the fuss? Have there been any deaths? Not a single person is dead.’’

I think rather than asking the girl’s father to be grateful that his daughter came home safe, it would be better if the minister goes home safe before the public lose their patience.