Mangaluru : People should not get agitated over messages on communal incidents being spread through social media. All should join hands to restore peace. Appealing to people in Dakshina Kannada to cooperate for restoring harmony, Minister in-charge of the district B. Ramanath Rai said here on Monday that people should not heed to rumours being spread through social media on communally related incidents.

Addressing presspersons, Mr. Rai said that all elected representatives from the district will be conducted in the office of Deputy Commissioner here on Thursday in connection with maintaining communal harmony. Elected representatives from all parties would be invited to it. Mr. Rai said that majority and minority communalism was tarnishing the image of Dakshina Kannada. Both are dangerous. People’s respect in general over Dakshina Kannada was fading as the district has turned out communally sensitive now. The Minister alleged that both majority and minority communal forces unable to tolerate the development works being carried out by the Congress in the district were tarnishing the image of Dakshina Kannada.

Claiming that the Congress did not have any role in the communal incidents in the district since over a month, the Minister said that the party did not communalise any issues in the district.

Questioning the need for taking out the body of RSS activist Sharath Madivala, killed in an attack in BC Road last week, in a procession from Mangaluru to Sajipa on Saturday, the Minister said that it was for political benefits and to garner more votes for the BJP.

The Minister said that when vice-president of Karopady Gram Panchayat in Vitla Abdul Jaleel from the Congress was murdered and the body was shifted to a hospital in Mangaluru sometime ago and the Congress did not take the body out in a procession. The Congress did not use the death of its worker for political advantage. But the Sangh Parivar used it without any shame to break the prohibitory orders and for political benefit.

Minister for Food and Civil Supplies U.T. Khader alleged that the BJP was trying to exploit a murder case to retain its political existence.