Meet Anantkumar Hegde, your new minister for skill development: He has cases pending for hate speech, slapping doctors

With Sunday’s much-anticipated Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed his reorganised team, and Anantkumar Hegde as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. A five-time BJP MP from Uttar Kannada constituency, Hegde’s induction came as a surprise to many in Karnataka political circles as  speculations peculations suggested selection of an MP from Lingayat community, BJP’s strong vote base, would be chosen. [caption id=“attachment_4010143” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Anath Kumar Hegde taking oath at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday. News18[/caption] Hegde, who is currently the member of parliamentary standing committee on External Affairs and Human Resources, comes with much baggage. In March 2016, the hardcore RSS member had sparked a controversy over his reported remarks allegedly linking Islam to terrorism. “Until we eradicate Islam from the world we will not be able to eliminate terrorism from the world… Islam is a bomb placed to disrupt world peace. As long as there is Islam there will be no peace in the world,” he had said at a press conference, according to  News18 . He had asked all reporters to ensure they quote him verbatim. For his inflammatory speech in Sirsi town, Hegde was booked under Section 295 A (intent to outrage religious feelings) of the IPC. Interestingly, Hegde on Sunday took oath in Hindi amid a row in Karnataka over imposition of the language at the cost of Kannada. Even though the newly-inducted minister posted a string of tweets hailing Modi on Sunday, a little amount of digging through Hedge’s Twitter account would further reveal his intense love for controversy.

The Taekwondo expert was once also in the news for assaulting doctors, after CCTV images of the January 2017 incident involving Hegde went viral. Hegde was reportedly furious at the staff of the private hospital for not giving proper treatment to his mother. Hegde was booked for causing damage to property in medical facility, and under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), reported Bangalore Mirror . The politician has previously also faced multiple cases of rioting and inciting violence. In 1993, he was first accused of rioting, unlawful assembly and promoting enmity, when he was allegedly involved in Bhatkal riots, The Indian Express reported. However, Modi is clearly unaffected by, if not unaware of, Hegde’s controversial past.