Bengaluru witnessed a major clash between two communities where Kannada activists vandalised hoardings written in Hindi near a Jain temple in Infantry Road area
Bengaluru: As many as six members from Kannada Rakshana Sene were arrested on Sunday (August 18) for vandalising a Hindi banner outside a Jain temple in Bengaluru.
In a video that went viral on social media on Friday (August 17) evening, a group of people were seen gathered outside the Jain temple on Infantry Road, Bengaluru questioning a man on why the information (of upcoming programmes) on the banner was in Hindi and not Kannada.
Soon after, the members from the Kannada outfit began to vandalise the hoarding with knives when Bengaluru Police decided to intervene and arrested six members from the group for promoting enmity between different groups, insulting and provoking to disturb public peace, mischief causing damage and criminal intimidation.
The arrested are Harish Gowda, Anjanappa, Chandrashekar, Manjunath, Ramesh Gowda and Mahesh Gowda.
The issue turned political after HD Kumaraswamy demanded Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa to withdraw the case filed against the accused.
In a tweet, former Karnataka chief minister, HD Kumaraswamy said, "Respected chief minister, please withdraw the case registered against the Kannada activists. You can show your strength by convincing the Centre to allocate funds (flood-related) required for the state."
Prior to Kumaraswamy's tweet, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya took to Twitter to condemn the attack on the Jain community where the Kannada activists and other people related to different political parties converted Surya's tweet into communalising the event.
However, Tejasvi Surya, in another tweet, said, "Many great poets like Pampa, Ponna & Ranna known as Ratnatraya or three gems of Kannada literature were Jains. Very beginning of Kannada literature is Jaina Yuga. Therefore, I urge today's young Jains in Karnataka to learn this history & also use Kannada in their communications."
This tweet, by the Bengaluru South MP, left Twitterati divided where several people claimed that his tweets were communalising the event while others claimed that using Hindi without Kannada was unacceptable in the state.
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