Police just watched as woman threw ink on my face: Noted rationalist KS Bhagwan to TNM

Controversy

On February 4, Bhagwan’s face was smeared with ink by a woman who called him an anti-Hindu.

Pooja Prasanna

Days after noted author and rationalist KS Bhagwan was smeared with ink on his face in Bengaluru, he told TNM that the police persons who were present inside the City Civil Court Complex premises refused to act and remained mute spectators. This even as Bhagwan cried out to the police to stop the woman, he says. He also denies reports that the Mysuru police have issued a gag order to him after the incident.  “Reports that police have asked me to not speak to the media or address a gathering is not true, it is incorrect news. I have myself decided to stay quiet for a couple of days,” Bhagwan told TNM. Narrating the incident that unfolded on February 4, Bhagwan said, “I got a bail in a case and the judge said I can leave. When I was exiting, she came from behind and smeared ink on my face. There were at least ten police personnel standing there. I asked them to arrest the lady immediately but not a single person came forward,” Bhagwan added. A video of the incident where rationalist and multiple award winning Kannada writer KS Bhagwan was smeared with ink was shared on Facebook and Twitter by the city-based lawyer Meera Raghavendra who claimed that she did that as a form of punishment. According to Meera, Bhagwan deserved this for allegedly insulting Hindu religion.  Read: Karnataka’s warriors against hate For decades, Bhagwan’s alternate perspectives on Hindu customs and mythology have earned him immense hostility from many and even several death threats. Police investigating the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh had allegedly found a hitlist, which had Bhagwan’s name right on top. Bhagwan alleges that the police who were reluctant to take any action have not given him any update yet. “I have no idea who the lady who threw ink at me is. That day when the incident happened I was told that she is a lawyer. I don’t know even today if shehas been arrested,” he told TNM. Since the latest incident, Bhagwan says police patrolling has increased around his Mysuru residence and that he has not received any fresh calls of threat.

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Bengaluru to see dry, chilly mornings this week: Here’s why

Weather

The lowest temperature recorded for Bengaluru city on Wednesday was 12.2°C at HAL station.

TNM Staff

WikimediaCommons/Manojk

If you are in Bengaluru, expect cool and dry temperatures to prevail till the end of this week, especially in the night and early hours of the morning. Maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 29 degree Celsius and 14 degree Celsius respectively. Mornings will remain foggy and misty while there will be bright skies for the rest of the day, leading to a rise in temperature. The temperatures are expected to drop gradually after sunset. The lowest temperature recorded for Bengaluru city on Wednesday was 12.2°C at the Indian Meteorological Department’s HAL station. Friday saw the temperature drop as low as 11°C for IMD’s station in Gandhi Krishi Vigyana Kendra (GKVK), which was the lowest of the season. Similar trends have been observed across the state with Bidar recording the lowest minimum temperature of 9°C in the plains of the state. Many places in the state have seen temperatures vary between 1-3°C in many places from normal. According to Sunil M Gavaskar, a meteorologist at Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, this weather is not particularly extraordinary and that this kind of temperature at this time of the year is expected. He pointed out that in the last two to three days, the minimum temperatures have been going a little lower than normal temperature (of an average of 30 years). “This is partly due to the cold waves prevalent in northern parts of the country, and so, we are experiencing dry winds across the state. Further, due to clear skies, there are no incidents of heat being trapped, so we are seeing temperatures drop with the sunset. That is why day temperatures are as high as 30°C and the minimum temperatures are as low as 15°C for most parts of the state,” Sunil Gavaskar told TNM. “In some isolated parts in north Karnataka, we are seeing minimum temperatures reach subzero temperature of minus 10°C. Last year, we had seen the temperature in those areas drop further below, so there is nothing much to worry about,” he added. In the next week, the temperature is expected to rise a bit as there will be some clouds. Some parts of south interior Karnataka may also receive rains. Bidar and Kalaburagi are places that are experiencing significant drops in minimum temperature, said Sunil Gavaskar.

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Bengaluru: Unscheduled power cuts in many areas after technical snag

Power Cut

Koramangala, JP Nagar, Austin Town , Ulsoor, Indira Nagar and Chamarajpet were some of the affected areas.

TNM Staff

Many parts of Bengaluru on Thursday faced unscheduled power interruptions from 12 pm due to a technical snag. The areas that were impacted were Jayanagar, SR Nagar, Shanthi Nagar, Wilson Garden, Austin Town, Koramangala, JP Nagar, Ulsoor, Indira nagar, Chamarajpet, Marathahalli, HAL and surrounding areas, according to the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom). In a tweet, Bescom said that power supply will be restored within one hour’s time. However, many areas have not seen restoration of power supply at the time of writing. “There was an interruption in KPTCL’s (Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited) major power receiving station in Hoodi and all areas that come under the purview of that station are suffering power cuts. We do not have major details on the cause of this as we are a distribution company and they are a transmission company,” a Bescom official said. Chandrababu Naidu, Executive Engineer at KPTCL said that the snag will be fixed within 10 minutes, and did not share further details. This was not the only unscheduled power outage reported from the city on Thursday. There was no power supply in Bharath Layout, Turahalli, PP Layout, Uttarahalli, Happy Valley, JP Nagar 7th Phase, Bank of Baroda colony, Thirumalashettyhalli, Nagawara and surrounding areas for more than an hour till 11:30 am. However, reasons for these outages were not disclosed by Bescom. These incidents of daily power cuts are not new and have been happening regularly in Bengaluru for a host of reasons. In January, many Bengaluru residents had to face scheduled power outages from 10 am to 5.30 pm for five days. First it was areas in HSR Layout which faced ths outage between January 11 and 16. Later, areas of Konankunte and Puttenahalli faced similar outages between January 18 and 22.

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Bengaluru gets new parking policy, roadside parking gets expensive

Transport

The policy seeks to adopt a pay-and-park system for residents who park outside their homes in a few areas of the city.

Prajwal Bhat

WikimediaCommons/VincentBloch

Roadside parking in Bengaluru is set to get costlier as the Karnataka government has approved a new parking policy for the city. The Karnataka Urban Development Department has accepted the draft policy framed by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) that aims at decongesting and doing away with haphazard parking on Bengaluru’s roads, and to ease up road space for the seamless movement of people and vehicles. The Parking Policy 2.0 aims at minimising roadside parking, and to ensure the same, the policy has said that users be charged the cost of parking and to make users directly pay for their desired parking convenience. Urban local bodies will be asked to consider parking management as one of its key functions and deliver parking services in a systematic and efficient manner. The policy recommends that on-street commercial parking be 1.5 to 3 times the base parking fee, depending on location. On-street parking fee beyond one hour should be increased for busy commercial areas, the policy says.  DULT’s policy seeks to adopt a permit system for alloting designated parking zones near the homes of residents on a pilot basis. The pay-and-park system will be implemented in a few areas of the city initially. The area-wise plans will be prepared by DULT and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) this year. Residents will be able to purchase parking permits on a quarterly or annual basis and then renew them upon expiry. “However, a permit does not guarantee a parking spot but only authorizes the permit holder to park on the road for which the permit is allotted, if space is available,” the policy document states. The annual parking permit for small cars will be Rs 1000 while the parking permit for medium cars will be Rs 3,000 or Rs 4,000. The parking permit for larger vehicles like SUVs will be Rs 5000. No charges will be levied for parking of bicycles in designated areas. The parking policy also covers shared mobility operators and delivery agents who can pay bulk parking fees. “Such beneficiaries shall be validated by the aggregator and RTO. A database of such beneficiaries should be maintained in the central parking portal,” the policy document reads.  Regular users of off-street parking can also apply for a monthly parking pass. The policy also aims to decongest Bengaluru roads and place curbs on-street parking especially in areas with a multi-level parking facility. It also plans to use existing CCTV cameras in the city to monitor and enforce parking regulations and also discusses using local volunteers and conducting a parking census every year to help with the effort. In other measures suggested, the policy contends that the traffic congestion at the centre of Bengaluru is linked to the movement of freight vehicles and the location of major wholesale markets in the city. It suggests shifting a few wholesale markets to the periphery of the city. “Any measure to place a price on an item that was previously free is likely to be met with resistance. The case of on-street parking in residential areas is also no different and requires widespread citizen participation to build a slow yet steady movement towards reclaiming residential street space from parking,“ it states. The parking policy also aims to encourage residents in Bengaluru to take to public transport. “The broader objective of utilization of the parking revenue should be to reduce the demand for parking by improving other sustainable mobility options like footpaths and public realm for improved conditions for walking, safe cycling infrastructure, integrated public transport network, etc. Thereby, over time, the need to commute by private vehicles would reduce and land allocated for parking can be reclaimed and put for more productive use,” it adds. The DULT’s policy was drafted over the past two years and had invited public opinion as well. The policy was made public in March 2020, and focused on a four-point goal: making a shift from chaotic parking to organized parking in the city; from free parking to paid parking; move from government-driven parking supply to market-driven parking supply; and management and ensure strict enforcement of the new policy – a shift from the present “passive and weak” enforcement.

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The quota conundrum in Karnataka poses threat to Yediyurappa's legacy

Politics

More than one of his cabinet colleagues have taken part in movements led by their respective community seers.

Soumya Chatterjee

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa faces an uncomfortable position in his fourth term even after accommodating all the ‘rebel’ MLAs in his cabinet. More than one of his cabinet colleagues have taken part in movements led by seers from their respective communities demanding a hike in reservation, or creation of community welfare board/corporations. Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi and Social Welfare Minister B Sriramulu on Tuesday took part in Valmiki Jatre in Davangere where community leaders sought a hike in reservation from 3.5% to 7.5% under the ST quota. Rural Development Minister KS Eshwarappa is leading the movement demanding the Schedule Tribe tag for the Kuruba community on the other hand. However the most significant is the demand by the Panchamasali community. ‘Bid to isolate Yediyurappa in his own community’ While it may be for the first time that a CM has to witness so many of his ministers taking part in demonstrations pegged against his own government, none of them is as politically significant as the demand for getting the 2A reservation status for the Panchamasali community as against the present 3B category. This movement has the support of ministers from the community like Murugesh Nirani, CC Patil and the CM’s harshest critic Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, the MLA from Vijayapura. Panchamsalis are a Lingayat sub-sect and Yediyurappa (belonging to Banajiga sub-sect) enjoys the status of being the tallest leader of the entire Lingayat community. A source, closely following the developments, explained, “This demand for 2A status is not based on logic but purely to isolate Yediyurappa politically among the Lingayat community. If he agrees then also it’s a loss for him and if he does not, then also he loses. Either way, the community leaders will now say Yediyurappa gave us the reservation based on our protests or he did not give us even after our protests.” The source source opined that the present 5% quota which they get under 3B category will be more than what they will get under 2A category as the 15% quota will be again subdivided by 101 castes--which will ultimately mean that they will get 2-3%. While there does not seem to be any immediate threat to his position as Chief Minister for the present term as endorsed by the party’s central leadership, this crisis puts a severe dent on his decades’ long legacy as the undisputed number one in state BJP without a distant second.  Sandeep Shastri, a veteran political analyst, says, “Be it this term as the Chief Minister or in 2008, BS Yediyurappa has had to get MLAs from the other side to be in power. Further, there was always this power dynamic between leaders of his own party. So this competitive demand of caste groups for certain benefits is the representation of the power struggle going on with the party. This has been a feature both in his government of 2008 and 2019.” He adds, “While this is nothing new or unexpected, in the last one year, the political robustness seen in him over the years is missing.” The source says a dent in Yediyurappa’s image as a tall leader also means speed breaks for the political career of his sons. Raghavendra is already an MP installed by Yediyurappa himself and Vijayendra has also seen himself grow as an adept political strategist even though his electoral debut in the 2018 Assembly elections was stalled by the party high command.  Both Shastri and the source opined that the central leadership wants to change the leadership in Karnataka and they tacitly encourage all these rifts to frustrate him and slowly tire him out.  “They are hoping that the constant pinpricks that he is being subjected to will lead to the political fatigue further setting in and then he ultimately goes to the bargaining table. I think there is no doubt that the BJP central leadership is a tough bargainer in these issues. But they are also cautious of not pushing him too much as in the past it has been seen that pushing him back has seen him to rebel which is again undesirable for them,” Shastri observed. The source explained that this demand for 2A status is more for political capital of the community than anything else stating that even though 65% of all Lingayats are Panchamsalis, there has been no Panchamasali CM as of now. “On the other hand, seven out of eight Lingayat CMs are Banajiga and one has been from Sadar community,” he added. He further claimed that Yediyurappa himself is to be partially blamed for this present crisis as he opened the “pandora’s box” when he conceded to demands and formed the Lingayat Development Corporation. “Lingayats are majorly affluent and are not backward socio-economically. He had created the board to further consolidate his position as the community leader but that has backfired. Now for this, he has to see the demand for boards for Reddys, Brahmhins, Vokkaligas and other well to do communities,” he said. Read: Brahmins in Karnataka to soon get caste, income certificates: CM Yediyurappa Read: K'taka reservation demands: Govt will do what is possible within ambit of law, says CM

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'Our support rests with the farmers': Sandalwood actor Shivarajkumar on farmers’ protest

Farm Laws

Farmers from Karnataka recently went to Delhi’s Ghazipur border, where protests against the farm laws continue.

TNM Staff

File image

Sandalwood star Shivarajkumar is the latest celebrity to join the bandwagon and express his support for the farmers' protest. Speaking to the press in Bengaluru, he stated that "our support rests with the farmers protesting." However, he added that the public must follow the letter of the law, and that there were limits to the way farmers could express their views. Additionally, he stated that the farmers know their own issues better than others would. “We cannot even solve the problems of our own industry. How can we solve others’ problems? A human should support another. Even if we don’t post on social media, our support rests with the farmers protesting,” said Shivarajkumar. Though several Indian actors, sportspersons and celebrities have voiced their support for the government, others, including international celebrities, have backed the farmers protesting against the three farm laws at Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur borders near Delhi. Pop star Rihanna, environmentalist Greta Thunberg, Mia Khalifa and lawmakers from the United States of America have spoken out. Meena Harris, US Vice President Kamala Harris’s niece, has also commented on the issue. This also resulted in mobs burning effigies, photos and posters of Rihanna, Greta, and Meena. Some Indian football players have also taken to social media to signal their support for the farmers and their protest. Shortly after pop icon Rihanna’s tweet, many celebrities, actors and sports stars including Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Akshay Kumar and others tweeted using the hashtags #IndiaAgainstPropaganda and #IndiaTogether. The Ministry of External Affairs had used these same hashtags in its statement against international voices speaking out on the protests. Farmers from across the nation had also expressed solidarity with those protesting. Kodihalli Chandrashekhar, a prominent farm leader from Karnataka, had recently led a delegation of farmers to Ghazipur border and met Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait. Kodihalli also addressed the protesting farmers and assured them that they will support them until the three farm laws are repealed.

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HD Deve Gowda says JD(S) will not contest upcoming Karnataka bye-polls

Politics

"We don't have money to fight these elections," Gowda was quoted as saying, in a release shared by his office.

PTI

JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda on Wednesday said his party will not contest bye-elections for the Belgaum Lok Sabha seat, and Basavakalyan, Sindagi and Maski Assembly seats. The bye-poll schedule is yet to be announced by the Election Commission. "JD(S) will not field its candidates for bye-polls to Belgaum Lok Sabha and Basavakalyan, Sindgi and Maski Assembly seats. We don't have money to fight these elections," Gowda was quoted as saying, in a release shared by his office. The former Prime Minister said he will completely involve himself towards organising and building the party for 2023 assembly polls. "... I will put all my efforts to save and build the regional party, with the support of leaders and workers," he said. While bye-polls to Belgaum Lok Sabha seat and Basavakalyan Assembly seat are necessitated following the death of Union Minister Suresh Angadi and MLA B Narayan Rao respectively due to COVID-19 in September last year, Maski seat fell vacant following the disqualification of MLA Prathapagouda Patil. Patil had won the Maski Assembly seat in 2018 from Congress and is now with the BJP. Sindagi MLA and senior JD(S) leader MC Managuli's death last month, due to age related ailments, has necessitated bye-polls there. With an aim to win these seats, the ruling BJP and opposition Congress have already begun the process of shortlisting the candidates, party sources said. Noting that BJP will face a setback in elections to four states this year, Deve Gowda said according to him the saffron party will not get many seats in Tamil Nadu, and lauded the "courage" of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. "Despite getting less votes, Mamata may retain power...the whole BJP team is camping in West Bengal. Legislators and Ministers quitting the party may cause a setback to TMC to an extent, but Mamata Banerjee will become CM (of West Bengal) for the third time," he added. The terms of the legislative assemblies of the four states, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, and the Union Territory of Puducherry, end on different dates in May and June and the elections are likely to take place in April.

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