No decision on banning 'certain organisations' for Bengaluru violence: Karnataka law minister
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Thursday did not take any decision to initiate a process banning 'certain organisations' which were allegedly behind the violence in Bengaluru on August 11 night.
"We had a detailed discussion but we did not take any concrete decision because till now as of now we don't have any report and closed the matter only after discussing it," Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
Madhuswamy said the ministers discussed the matter elaborately but there was no decision as such on it. He added that a final call will be taken only after "getting reports."
"After getting the reports, the government will certainly initiate action. If needed, we don't mind even amending the existing law," the law minister said.
There was a growing clamour to ban the Social Democratic Party of India, which the right wing groups allege was behind the violence in Bengaluru in which three people killed in police firing on August 11 night.
Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai had said on August 13 that as per the information gathered and video footage, the role of SDPI behind the mob violence had come to light and investigation will go deep into it.
The SDPI had denied its role in the violence and blamed police inaction.
The violence in DJ Halli and adjoining areas on August 11 was unleashed by hundreds of people over a purportedly inflammatory social media post allegedly put out by a relative of Pulakeshinagar Congress MLA R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy.
His residence and a police station at D J Halli were torched by rioters, who also set many police and private vehicles ablaze and looted the belongings of the MLA and his sister.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
