Bengaluru violence: Those who damaged public property will pay for it, says Home Minister

Crime

According to the police, over 250 vehicles were destroyed, two police buildings were damaged and MLA Srinivas Murthy's home was set on fire.

TNM Staff

PTI

Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said that those who resorted to vandalising public property in the violence that erupted on Tuesday night in Bengaluru, would be made to pay for the damages. The process of recovering losses due to property damage would begin immediately, he said.    "In any state in the country, when there is a rioting case, the worth of public property damaged must be recovered from the persons who have committed the crime. We will take action immediately in this regard. We are identifying the persons and we will see that losses are recovered from them," Basavaraj Bommai said.  Picture courtesy: Arun Dev The state's Home Minister also issued a warning against disrupting law and order in the state. "I want to warn the people that they cannot take law into their hands and some people think they are the law. We will expose the conspiracy in the course of the investigation," he said.    A huge mob had gathered outside the DJ Halli Police Station on Tuesday protesting against a "derogatory comment" that was uploaded by the nephew of Pulakeshi Nagar MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy against Prophet Muhammad. The mob consisting of hundreds from the Muslim community, gathered around the police station and began pelting stones, and vandalising vehicles in the vicinity. Police and civilian vehicles were set on fire.  Around 500 people also gathered outside the KG Halli Police Station and also vandalised the building and vehicles. MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy's under construction home, adjacent or his current residence, was also set ablaze by the mob. The police opened fire at round midnight to disperse the crowds. Three people died in the violence including Javeed Khan (19), Yasin Pasha (22) and Sheikh Sadiq (24), all of whom were residents of DJ Halli. As many as 60 police personnel and 12 others among the mob were injured.   Speaking to TNM, Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant said that the extent of property damage is still being determined. The basement of the new DJ Halli Police Station was set on fire. Stones were pelted at the building, leading to severe damage to the interiors on both floors of the building, he said.  Picture courtesy: Arun Dev In addition, two buses, two jeeps and six motorcycles belonging to the police were set ablaze. "The mob also set on fire 200 seized vehicles that were parked near the DJ Halli Police station. KG Halli police station was also vandalised. This is only the damage to property within the police control. Besides this, the MLA's house was set on fire. Around 50 to 60 vehicles belonging to civilians were destroyed or set on fire," Commissioner Kamal Pant said. 

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Five bonded labourers rescued from Bengaluru borewell unit, owner booked

Human Rights

The five men rescued from Shankar Nagar are Adivasis from Madhya Pradesh, belonging to the Gond tribe, authorities said.

Sidhant Simha

The rescue team with the labourers at the borewell unit's office

“Even if I am close to death, I will not come back here,” 23-year-old Rakesh*, who has two children aged three and four, said. “I will work in my fields or find some work in my village,” he added. Rakesh was among five bonded labourers who were rescued from a borewell digging unit in Sahakar Nagar, a residential suburb in Bengaluru based on a tip-off. According to authorities, the five men; aged between 18 to 27, are Adivasis belonging to the Gond tribe in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district. The case came to light when Jan Sahas, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) working on issues of human trafficking and bonded labour in Madhya Pradesh received information about the plight of these workers through their helpline number. The District Magistrate of Betul was alerted about the situation, who in turn contacted the Bengaluru Urban District Deputy Commissioner. Then, a group of police personnel along with Tahsildar Raghu Murthy and the International Justice Mission (IJM), an NGO, rescued the five workers. Speaking about the incident in a video, the Tahsildar said that a man identified as Kempanna had brought the Adivasis from Madhya Pradesh on the promise of a job. He added that the men were not paid for their labor and would only be provided with the scarcest of rations, and no proper accommodation. According to authorities, four of the workers had been working at the borewell unit since November 2019 while one worker had joined them in June 2020. The first batch of four workers, all friends, got to know about the work in Bengaluru when the borewell unit owner’s visiting card was passed on to them in their village. They called the owner to enquire about the job, for which he had promised them Rs 10,000 as a monthly salary. They decided to travel to Bengaluru and were picked up at the railway station by the owner. The last worker was told about the job by a friend and he was also promised the same salary and reached Bengaluru in June, investigation officials said. The Tahsildar said that the workers were only given Rs 200 to 1,000 each, occasionally, only if they were in dire need of something. They were forced to live in a truck in bad conditions. They were given rations like rice, dal and vegetables by the owner periodically and a stove for cooking. The government official also said that the workers were not even allowed to go back to their village as the owner kept insisting that they had to stay with him until he found a replacement for them. A case was registered against the owner of the borewell company under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 at the Kodigehalli Police Station on August 10. The District Administration then began the process of issuing release certificates to the five men and sending them back home. “My family has three acres of land where we grow corn, soybean, and rice. I came here because I was in need of some money to buy a motor for my own borewell in my land and to save some money for my children’s education but we were cheated here. I hope I get the wages for the months that I worked here,” Rakesh said.

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When Kodagu merged with Mysore: A short political history of the region

History

An erstwhile independent state, Coorg was merged with Mysore after the States Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956.

Rakshith S Ponnathpur

Talacauvery temple hill, Kodagu | Author: Aneezone/ Wikimedia Commons/ CCBYSA3.0

It was S Nijalingappa’s death anniversary on August 8 and I was reading about the unified Mysore state’s first Assembly elections in order to get some insights about the first and one of the longest serving Chief Ministers of our state. One article led to another and I found myself in the middle of several articles about Coorg’s merger with Mysore. It was such an interesting revelation that I kept hopping from one article to another and got deeper into the rabbit hole. Since most of us outside of Kodagu are informed just in passing in our textbooks about how Coorg was an independent state before the unification, I thought this was a story worth telling. After more than a century of direct British rule since its annexation from its last ruler Chikka Veera Rajendra (in 1834), Coorg became an independent (Type C) state within India along with other small, hilly, erstwhile princely states like Himachal Pradesh. Coorg had a strong Congress party presence and participated enthusiastically in the freedom struggle, with even stalwarts like Gandhi visiting the state on a few occasions to mobilise the immensely patriotic people from the land of coffee, commanders and Kaveri. But the Congress leadership within Coorg was heavily divided over whether to remain an independent state or to join the larger neighbouring state of Mysore. While one faction led by the Gandhian CM Poonacha was more pragmatic in seeing the impracticality of a tiny state like Coorg being allowed to remain independent in a country as large as India and being open to the idea of merging with Mysore since Kannada was already the language broadly used in education and administration within Coorg, the other faction led by another Gandhian Pandiyanda Belliappa was , staunchly against the merger. The loyalty of both factions and leaders, however, lay with the Congress. When the legislative assembly elections were announced in late 1951, to be held along with the first ever election to independent India’s parliament, the Pandiyanda Belliappa faction moved away from the Mysore-sympathetic Congress and formed the Thakkadi Party (weighing machine), contesting as independents on the plank of Coorg’s continuation as an independent state. In what was a Brexit style election to decide the future of Coorg state, the Congress emerged victorious, winning 15 seats in the 24-member Coorg Assembly, while the Thakkadi Party won the remaining 9 seats. Questions were raised about the fairness of the elections as allegations surfaced that voters were sent from the neighbouring towns in Mysore to vote for the Congress, in effect for Coorg’s merger with Mysore. Poonacha, however, took oath as Coorg’s first and only elected Chief Minister and ruled till 1956 with a two-member Cabinet. In 1956, the States Reorganisation Act was passed in the Parliament by the Nehru government, allowing Coorg’s merger with Mysore. Several efforts were made by key dignitaries from Coorg to secure an independent state status, including the decorated Field Marshal KM Cariappa, who was then serving as India’s High Commissioner to Australia and New Zealand. He wrote a letter to President Rajendra Prasad, making a case for Coorg to remain an independent state. But it proved too little, too late as the Nehru-led Congress government remained committed to the Act and reined in dissent within the party units across states. When the bill was taken up to be voted by Coorg’s Assembly as it required ratification by state assemblies before becoming a legislation, 22 out of 24 legislators, including Pandiyanda Belliappa, voted for Coorg’s merger with Mysore. The first and only elected legislative assembly and government of Coorg was thus dissolved, paving the way for its integration with the unified Mysore state. Poonacha went on to serve both the Mysore and central governments in various capacities as cabinet minister holding various important portfolios, and also served as the Governor of Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. He was also Coorg’s representative in the Constituent Assembly. Coorg also sent two members to independent India’s first elected Parliament. After its merger with Mysore, however, Coorg was clubbed with Mangalore earlier and Mysore later into a single parliamentary constituency. It sends two legislators to the 224-member state assembly of Karnataka. Many people in Coorg are still divided and emotional over the issue of Coorg’s merger with Mysore. The Codava National Council, under the leadership of NU Nachappa, fought for the restoration of statehood for Coorg for several decades. But it has now toned down its demand to that of an autonomous development board exclusively for Coorg within Karnataka, with many other perks similar to those offered to other sparsely populated hilly regions and tribes in the Himalayas and the North East. Kodagu, the official name of the district, is one of the most developed districts of Karnataka across most parameters of development. With an HDI of 0.817, it is only behind Bengaluru, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in terms of human development. As it reels under another bout of floods this monsoon, let us keep the beautiful Coorg in our prayers and cherish its less known history. Rakshith S Ponnathpur is a financial and economic policy researcher with a keen interest in Karnataka history and politics.

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'Political rivalry led to Tuesday’s violence': Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai to TNM

Bengaluru violence

The Karnataka Home Minister, in an exclusive interview to TNM, said that the police have regained control of the area and that those behind the incident are being identified.

Pooja Prasanna

As a precarious calm prevails after Tuesday’s violence in North East Bengaluru, many questions still remain unanswered about how a mob of hundreds, managed to mobilise within hours and hold the area to ransom. TNM posed several of these questions to Karnataka home minister Basavaraj Bommai and here's what he had to say. “After yesterday's incident we have taken firm action. Golibar (firing) was done, three people are dead and a few others injured. 110 people have been arrested and now the situation is under control and there is peace in the area now. Both KG Halli and DJ Halli police stations have been reinforced. Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) also present there.” said Bommai. Elaborating on the additional security being intensified in sensitive places, the Karnataka Home Minister said, “As a precautionary measure, we are strengthening forces across the state. We have requisitioned the central home ministry for additional forces and they are sending three companies of Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) from Hyderabad and three from Chennai. We will deploy them in critical and sensitive places.” When TNM questioned about the identity of the three people who lost their lives and the cause of their deaths, the home minister said he will gather more details on the same once he reaches Bangalore from Mangalore and then update. However, it has been learnt that two people who died are youngsters from the area- Wajid Khan and Yasin Pasha. The News Minute · Karnataka HM Bommai tells TNM that reinforcements have been called in after Bengaluru violence Many, including the opposition party in the state have alleged that there was an intelligence failure on part of the government where they were ambushed by the mob who had allegedly come prepared to perpetrate violence. Denying the allegation, Bommai said, “The area is thickly populated with a very high density population. Within minutes, thousands of people can be gathered. This is not the first time something of this nature has taken place in that area.” The police are trying to determine if people from outside the locality were brought in particularly to create havoc. Meanwhile, the home minister believes that a majority of those involved in the riots were from the same vicinity. “Most of them are from that area; they are locals. There are many notorious criminals in that particular area.” Speaking about the motive, Bommai said the government suspected local political rivalry to be behind this incident. “There are many political factions also in that area so it culminated in what happened. There are political differences there which lead to this kind of an organised crime.”    

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Parents can pay the fees they can afford at this Indian Montessori pre-school

Education

This Montessori school based in Bengaluru and Kochi allows free virtual classes for children of COVID-19 frontline workers, and a flexible fee program for others.

Neethu Joseph

FB / The Freethinking School

At a time when many Indian families have been hit financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a pre-school based in south India has come up with a novel initiative to ensure no children are excluded from foundational education. The Freethinking School, with branches in Bengaluru in Karnataka and Kochi in Kerala, has come up with the ‘freedom from fees’ concept, where parents can pay the amount they can afford. The school which caters to children from 1.5 to 6 years, follows a Montessori system of education where knowledge is imparted through a child centred approach based on scientific observations and hands-on experiences.  Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the pre-school has designed its virtual classes — ‘Montessori at Home’ — for children in the age group 2.5 to 6 years. And it is this ‘Montessori at Home’ project where the school authorities are now offering for a flexible fee. According to the officials of the Freethinking School, the usual charges are Rs 5,750 as fees for a month for a child. “Many are going through severe financial crises due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So, we are now providing an opportunity where parents are free to decide what they can pay according to their capacity for the classes. There is only a minimum amount of Rs 100 as transaction fees. And for frontline workers engaged in COVID-19 containment, it will be completely free,” says Sandy Philip, Director and Co-founder of The Freethinking School.  Families who can afford to pay more than the minimum transaction amount are also welcome, said school officials. “There will also be an option for families to donate this extra amount for enrolment of others. It can be for children of their domestic workers etc.,” Sandy said. World over, there are scores of schools which follow this Montessori method, developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori. The Freethinking School’s new program is also on the occasion of Maria Montessori’s 150th birth anniversary which will falls on August 31. The ‘Montessori at Home’ program allows parents to download lesson kits for the students that will include the list of activities children have to do focusing on five Montessori areas of learning – practical life, sensorial, language, mathematics and cultural extensions. There will also be videos for parents on how they can help out children in the learning process. A time-table of daily activities will be provided to help guide children. According to the officials of the school, children from across the country and even from other countries can enrol for the virtual classes. “Ever since we started virtual classes this August, many from across the world have enrolled in our program. Recently there was an enrollment from a family who are stranded in a ship across the Atlantic,” said Sandy, stating that the program is getting a good reception. The school will provide the ‘Montessori at Home’ package until March 2021. According to school authorities, the scheme will be extended if the COVID-19 situation continues to prevail. Also read: Digital divide worsens social exclusion: Anti-caste activists on Devika’s death Watch NEP 2020: Five new changes in India’s education policy

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A day after violence, cops detain several residents of Bengaluru East

Violence

Local residents say that police came to the area in the wee hours of the morning and picked up men between the age of 17 to 70.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

Following the violence in Bengaluru East, the police have detained over one hundred people and arrested several people. Trouble started on Tuesday night after a group of people from the Muslim community gathered at the DJ Halli police station demanding action against a derogatory post allegedly uploaded by Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy's nephew, against Prophet Muhammed. Things got out of control as the crowd, which grew in size, blamed the police for not filing an FIR immediately. In that chaos and violence that ensued, one police station was set on fire, another was attacked and around 25 vehicles charred. Three protestors lost their lives in the violence and subsequent police firing. At least six members of the SDPI were also at the DJ Halli police station in the night, and a few of them too, have been arrested, according to sources. Police said that 42 people have been kept in Devara Jeevanahalli or DJ police station after they were taken into preventive custody while 30 others were at the Kadugodinahalli police station. TNM was not able to confirm where the others have been kept. Local residents who live near the DJ Halli police station said that after the situation was brought under control late on Tuesday night, police went to many individual houses in the areas surrounding the police station and took away a busload of men. "My husband came home at 10 pm last night, and went to bed as he was tired. He has had an operation recently and is still recovering. But while we were sleeping, at around 4 am, the police hit the doors until we opened and then took away my husband. We don't know where they were taken." Ammeena said. Another woman said that her 17-year-old son and her 72-year-old neighbour who was running a fever were also taken away.  Saleem, another resident of DJ Halli claimed that he did not know the people who started the riot. "We have no idea who these people are. I am an auto driver. Since the roads in front of the police station were blocked, I took a longer route and locked up my vehicle. We only know what came on TV as we had locked up the gate and doors." Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai however told TNM that most of the rioters were from the region and were not outsiders. Also Read:  How two police stations in Bengaluru became targets of mob violence on Tuesday night Bengaluru violence: Congress leaders condemn mob attack and provocative FB post Three dead, over 100 arrested in East Bengaluru violence, attack on MLA’s home

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How two police stations in Bengaluru became targets of mob violence on Tuesday night

Bengaluru Violence

Three people lost their lives and over 60 were injured in the violence that spanned northeast Bengaluru on Tuesday.

Pooja Prasanna

On Tuesday night, as visuals of a violent mob going on a rampage were beamed across television channels, confusion prevailed over why two police stations- DJ Halli and KG Halli - were at the receiving end. As some channels claimed that scenes of arson, stone pelting being reported were from outside DJ halli, others claimed they were from KG Halli. TNM pieced together the sequence of events of why two police stations faced the ire of a mob exceeding four thousand in number, who were not deterred even by the police personnel in riot gear.  At around 8:30 pm, around 17-20 members of the Muslim community gathered outside Pulikeshi Nagar Congress MLA R Akhanda Srinivas Murthy’s bungalow in Kaval Byrasandra in Northeast Bengaluru. They were protesting against a derogatory post by his nephew on Prophet Muhammed. In a matter of minutes, the crowd started swelling and stone pelting began. Within the hour, close to 200 rioters, armed with stones, sticks and petrol, kerosene cans started damaging the legislator’s residence and also set his under construction house in the adjoining site on fire.  Pictures from DJ Halli police station on Wednesday morning. Around the same time, another group of people- incuding SDPI members- who had been reportedly offended by the MLA’s nephew’s Facebook post tried to file a police complaint in the DJ Halli Police Station against him. They claimed that the police were dragging their feet on the complaint and did not act swiftly. Angered by this, the group reached out to more of their associates who started gathering outside the DJ Halli police station. The protest against the police quickly turned violent and by 10 pm, almost 1,200 people had started rioting outside the police station. Vehicles parked inside the station were set on fire. By 11 pm, rumours started spreading that the MLA’s nephew was being protected by the police at the KG Halli police station, 1.4 kilometres away. Over 500 people gathered within minutes, this time, visibly prepared to create large scale violence. The angry mob started attacking police vehicles too and notwithstanding the reinforcement that arrived at the police station, started torching vehicles outside the police station.  Below are pictures from the KG Halli police station on Wednesday morning. Some of the police personnel present outside the KG Halli police station were chased by the armed mob and they took shelter nearby, even as they waited for reinforcement to arrive.   Several media persons too were injured, some even needing hospitalisation. While some faced the ire of the mob others were attacked by police while filming the riot-like situation. Questions on how the police were caught unaware even as hundreds of rioters were mobilised to protest against a two-week old defamatory post remains unanswered. 

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