Home Minister Parameshwara blames BJP for CM's gesture towards police officer
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Tuesday blamed BJP workers for their attitude at a meeting that led Chief Minister Siddaramaiah lose his cool and allegedly raise his hand at a police officer on the stage.
During an agitation against the price rise of essential commodities in the district headquarter town of Belagavi on Monday, a few women showed a black flag to Siddaramaiah as he stood up to address the gathering. The CM was upset by this sudden development and turned angry at the poor security arrangements.
Amid the commotion, as the Assistant Superintendent of Police, Narayan Bharamani, climbed on the stage, the chief minister approached him, raising his hands. He later shouted at the officer, "Who is the Belagavi SP? What's happening here? What are you doing here?"
Speaking to reporters here, Parameshwara said he did not have the complete information apart from whatever had appeared in the newspapers.
"I don't have any other information about why the chief minister turned upset. I will gather information and later react to it," he said.
"The preliminary information I have is that some BJP workers from Mahila Morcha (women's wing) entered the venue sporting Congress shawl," the minister said.
The BJP workers did not say anything when other Congress leaders were speaking. "However, when the chief minister stood up to speak, they showed him a black flag and staged a demonstration," he added.
Parameshwara said he has asked the Director General of Police to find out whether any lapses have taken place.
On the BJP's allegation of security lapse, Parameshwara said the BJP workers should have entered the venue wearing their party shawl and not the Congress' one. If they had come to the venue wearing BJP shawl, then the police would have come to know that there was a security lapse, he added.
He sought to know what moral right the BJP has to wear the Congress shawl?
The incident gave the BJP an opportunity to target the chief minister.
In a post on 'X', the BJP said, "Laying hands on an on-duty police officer is not just an attack on a person. It's an attack on the law and the people of Karnataka".
Running a hashtag of 'Death Of Democracy in Karnataka', the party said, "This isn't leadership, this is dictatorship - no less than Aurangzeb. A black day for Karnataka."
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
