Anisha Sheth | The News Minute | August 23, 2014 | 12.53 pm IST
(Last updated 2 pm IST)
Within an hour of Kannada writer U R Ananthamurthy’s death on Friday, right-wing groups in Karnataka burst crackers celebrating his death. Police have registered suo moto cases in two districts.
Right-wing activists in Mangalore in Dakshina Kannada and Chikmaglur districts burst crackers around 7 or 7.30 pm on Friday evening, celebrating the writer’s death.
Ananthamurthy had been vocally opposed to Hindutva politics and groups. When the Bharatiya Janata Party announced Narendra Modi has its prime ministerial candidate, he had said in September that it would be difficult to live in a country where Modi was prime minister.
After the election results were announced, such groups sent him flight tickets to Karachi, and many vitriolic comments appeared on social media, even as Ananthamurthy’s supporters rallied around him.
On Friday evening right-wing groups burst crackers in Mudigere town in Chikmaglur district, Superintendent of Police Chethan R told The News Minute. He told The News Minute that they were investigating the involvement of right-wing groups.
Other sources in Mudigere police said that cases have been registered against many people, and the police had so far named four people who they had been identify in the FIR, including Pravin Poojary, Bharat and Chandramouli. They have been booked under Sections 290, 143, and 147 of the Indian Penal Code.
Asked why the police registered a case suo moto, a police officer said on condition of anonymity: “They burst crackers in a public place without taking permission from the police and endangering public lives.”
Police sources also said that activists of the BJP and Hindu Jagrana Vedike had burst crackers.
Sources in Mangalore said that crackers were burst by “unidentified miscreants” in at least three places in Mangalore: Car Street, near Kadri temple and Suratkal. A case has been registered suo moto by Kadri Police officials under Section 290.
Sources in Mangalore said that Bajrang Dal activists had burst crackers near Kadri Temple gate in Mallikatte area of the city. Speaking to The News Minute State President of the Bajrang Dal Sharan Pumpwell on Saturday denied that his organisation was involved. He said: “It was not our boys, someone else. We are a national organization. Our principles and ideas differed with Ananthamurthy’s , but it’s not possible that we would do this.”
In June former vice chancellor of the Kannada University M M Kalburgi had said in a public programme that Ananthamurthy had urinated on a religious stone as a child. These remarks sparked a huge debate in the state.
Ananthamurthy wrote about that childhood experience in an essay titled “Bettale Puje Yake Kudadhu”, in which he discusses the idea of sacredness in the context of the nude-worship ritual performed by Dalits at the Chandraguthi temple in Sorab taluk of Shimoga district. Nude worship was banned by the government in the 1980s.
In around two weeks, four cases had been filed against Ananthamurthy and Kalburgi in Mangalore, Shimoga, Bijapur, and Bangalore, for offending religious sentiments. In Mangalore, it was a Bajrang Dal activist and in Shimoga, a VHP office bearer who had filed the cases. The case in Bangalore was filed by a man who shared the Sangh ideology.
Protests
As news of right-wing activists bursting crackers spread, condemnation too, began pouring in. Writers and literary personalities in the state expressed shock and outrage that such a thing had happened.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too said that action would be taken against the miscreants who had done it.
In Mangalore, the district Youth Congress staged a protest on Saturday afternoon near the Congress office. against the Bajrang Dal for having burst crackers.
Youth Congress staged a protest in Mangalore. The Kannada banner on the effigy reads: Desha drohi Bajrang Dal (Traitor Banjrang Dal)
Several other organizations, such as cultural group Samudaya, the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (B Krishnappa faction), Students Federation of India, Democratic Youth Federation of India are organizing a protest against the right-wing activists who burst crackers.
Youth Congress burned an effigy of Bajrang Dal in Mangalore
Speaking to The News Minute, state president of the DYFI Muneer Katipalla said that they would demand that the state police invoke the Goonda Act against the miscreants. He said: “The state government has declared three days of mourning, and has announced one day’s holiday. Ananthamurhty has been awarded the Jnanapith Award, has been given the Basava Award. The prime minister has also issued a statement condoling his death. He is a well-respected author. We will demand that the state government book these miscreants under the Goonda Act.”
“The state is in mourning, it is a sad occasion for everybody. Bursting crackers has offended the sentiments of citizens and is an insult to a writer of his stature,” he added.