Cases Booked Against Kannada and Urdu Daily : CM
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bangalore, Mar 2: Communal violence torn Hassan and Shimoga districts with Shimoga city claiming two lives in police firing and stabbing have returned to normalcy even as the state government has promised tight vigil and precautionary measures to prevent flare-up of the problem in the trouble-hit places and other parts of Karnataka.
The issue figured prominently in both houses of Karnataka legislature on Tuesday with the chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and home minister Dr V S Acharaya fielding inconvenient questions and defend the government in the state legislative assembly and legislative council respectively.
Making a suo-motu statement in the state assembly, the chief minister said cases had been booked against a prominent Kannada daily published from Bangalore and also an Urdu daily and mentioned that as many 103 people had been taken into custody in Hassan and Shimoga. As many as 33 persons and 25 policemen were injured in the violence in which 74 shops and 50 vehicles were damaged.
The chief minister held out a tough warning that the government would not spare anybody trying to take law into their own hands. The government would take all steps to provide compensation to the victims based on a fact-finding report on assessment of loss of property. A CRPF platoon has been deployed in Shimoga and another was on its way to Hassan.
Latest pictures from Shimoga
A few ``vested elements and anti-social elements” were responsible for the violence in two cities, he said pointing out that the article published in the Kannada daily was a translation of an essay written three years ago by exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen on wearing of the burka by Muslim women and contained remarks that could be considered religiously insensitive and proactive, Yeddyurappa said.
The chief minister said no untoward incident had been reported in the two cities since last night and describing the incident as ``unexpected.” The government was committed to protecting minority communities in the State. He said that he had telephoned Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday and Tuesday morning and informed him that the Government would not allow to be repeated such incidents in the future.
State BJP President K S Eshwarappa has visited Shimoga to hold peace meeting between two communities, the Chief Mister said and called upon the people to maintain peace and communal harmony in the State.
As soon as the House met in the morning, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah sought detailed information on incidents occurred in Shimoga and Hassan and said the demanded the government to give compensation to those who injured and lost shops and other properties during the violence. He urged the government to strengthen the Intelligence wing in the Home Department by recruiting new personnel. The parties should refrain from politicising the issue, he said.
`It has come to our knowledge that a derogatory article has been published against the holy preachings and traditions of Islam. On behalf of the state government, I assure the Muslim brothers that we will immediately take legal action,” he said appealing to the Muslims in particular and people of Karnataka in general not to get swayed by the rumours.”
Yeddyurappa pointed out that it had come to his notice that Taslima Nasreen had refused that she wrote the article for the newspaper and said that it was an attempt to malign her. The procession turned violent when a mob stoned at least 20 vehicles, including eight state transport corporation buses. Twelve two wheelers and an auto were also damaged. Incidents of petrol bomb throwing were also reported from different parts of Shimoga and Hassan.
Home Minister Dr V S Acharya made a similar statement on behalf of the government in the Upper House and made it clear that the government would not allow anybody, particularly anti-social elements to take law into their hands and disrupt the peace and harmony in society. He pointed out that the minority community leaders in the two cities had gathered at different places to submit memorandum against the objectionable article to the respective deputy commissioners, when anti-social elements indulged in mob violence.
``While we have no intention to preventing protests and demonstrations as they were an essential part of democracy, nobody would be allowed to break the law. The government is committed to ensuring full protection to all communities and safeguarding their interests,’’ Dr Acharya said promising to ensure that all the victims would be provided with suitable compensation as per the rules.
Congress opposition leader Motamma, JD(S) leader M C Nanaiah and other members criticised the government’s failure to effectively control the situation and take adequate precautionary measures even when the objectionable article had been published on Sunday. The police and intelligence wing had totally failed in anticipating the situation, especially in view of similar mob violence in 1980 when a local English daily had published a short story resulting in nine persons losing their lives.
The Congress and JD(D) members staged a walk-out protesting against the government’s failure to prevent the outbreak of communal violence with some members blaming the BJP government’s support to the fundamentalist forces and the series of attacks against churches and women emboldening these elements that they can get away with their unlawful activities.