1st incident
Traffic movements in and around town hall has been disrupted for one hour, as members of VHP staged a rasta roko condemning madikeri incident .
Hundreds of vehicles at NR square, Minerva circle, KG road were stranded for more than one hour due to rasta roko staged by the protestors . The protestors blamed the government for the clashes in Madikeri.
They also raised slogans against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Gnanapeeta awardee Girish karnad for his Tipu Sultan remark.
The police diverted the traffic to the adjacent roads . Normalcy returned after the protestors dispersed from town hall at around 1p.m.
2nd incident
This award has been very dear to me. My returning it to you, for whom I have much respect and admiration, is an expression of my concern at the currently prevailing socio-politico situation in the country, said Mr. Bhargava.
Well-known scientist and founder-director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) P.M. Bhargava has returned the Padma Bhushan award, received by him in 1986, to President Pranab Mukherjee in protest against the direction in which “today’s Government run by the BJP is driving the country”.
Mr. Bhargava sent the award to the President on November 6. Explaining the reasons for his decision to return the award, he said in a letter to Mr. Mukherjee: “it is with much regret that I am, with this letter, returning the award of Padma Bhushan that I had the privilege of receiving in 1986 from the then President of India, Shri Giani Zail Singh. This award has been very dear to me. My returning it to you, for whom I have much respect and admiration, is an expression of my concern at the currently prevailing socio-politico situation in the country. I am deeply concerned that the Bharatiya Janata Party which is ruling at the Centre and several States, has deserted the road of democracy and is driving my beloved country on a path that would make the country a Hindu religious autocracy, somewhat like Pakistan with Islam replaced by Hinduism”.
He said “no one would be more aware than you that, de facto, BJP is the political front of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and functions under the leadership of the RSS that is fully committed to the ideology of Hindutva, which I find divisive, unreasonable and unscientific”.
Referring to the Constitution (Article 51 a(h)), he said that one of the duties of citizens was to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. He said: “Steeped in superstition, unreason and irrationality, much of what RSS and BJP do goes against the grain of scientific temper. An example would be the recent statement of Shri Mohan Bhagwat, who heads the RSS, that marriage is a contract according to which the woman is supposed to be only a housewife and not work outside”.
Dr. Bhargava said “The Dadri incident in which Mohamed Akhlaq was lynched to death in a pre-planned manner (probably by fringe elements that are related to BJP) showed the control that BJP wants to have on what we may eat and what we may not, just as it wants to control what we may wear or whom we may love or what we may read."
“Incidentally, our scriptures put no bar on our eating beef. Charaka Samhita says: “The flesh of the cow is beneficial for those suffering from the loss of flesh due to disorders caused by an excess of vayu, rhinitis, irregular fever, dry cough, fatigue and also in cases of excessive appetite resulting from hard manual work”.
He also expressed his concern that the space for dissent, “which is the hallmark of a democracy is decreasing and intolerance increasing. Minorities are made to feel that they are second class citizens of the country. There are organised attempts to impose Hindutva agenda across the country. Cultural intolerance is a dominant element in the functioning of the present government”, he said.
Stating that he was a professional scientist with an experience of 65 years, he mentioned that he had the occasion of interacting on matters of science with the governments at the Centre since Independence. “I find the present government the least knowledgeable and least concerned about science. The climate of religious conservatism that we have today is a major obstacle in the functioning of science and thus in meeting developmental objectives”, he added.
3nd incident
A group of leading U.K. academics have published a letter in the “Guardian” calling for an acknowledgment of the “darker side of what’s happening in India today”.
The flipside of the enthusiastic official and diaspora support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on display during his visit to the United Kingdom is a deep undercurrent of opposition to recent developments that have occurred in India under the Prime Minister’s watch — from Mr. Modi’s tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat when over 2000 Muslims were killed in a pogrom in 2002, to more recent instances of intolerance for free speech.
A group of leading U.K. academics have published a letter in the Guardian calling for an acknowledgment of the “darker side of what’s happening in India today”.
Alleging that “inflammatory hate speech and violent acts against Christian and Muslim minorities” have “steadily increased”, the signatories say that Mr. Modi’s “silence and delayed response to all these crimes does nothing to stem the violence”. Supporting recent statements by scientists and academics in India they said, “In the past year, various freedoms have been attacked, including what people may think, eat, wear and whom they choose to love. Three secular critics have been brutally murdered and these crimes are linked to extreme rightwing groups.”
In addition to the letter by academics, 200 British writers from PEN International including Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Henry Marsh and Val McDermid have written an open letter calling on his government to “take legal action to safeguard freedom of expression in India”. Their letter highlights the “rising climate of fear, growing intolerance and violence towards critical voices who challenge orthodoxy or fundamentalism in India” and urges Mr. Cameron to “engage with Prime Minister Modi both publicly and privately on this crucial issue”.
So, I can say due to BJP INDIA fully integrated.
