Bengaluru stands still

Pro-Kannada organisations have done every crazy thing possible to condemn the SC verdict to release Cauvery to Tamil Nadu, culminating with today’s bandh. The bandh was called to protest the Supreme Court verdict which directed Karnataka to release 12 TMC of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. The activists patrolled the city on motorbikes to ensure cars and other vehicles remained off the streets and shops remained closed.

Some have stood on one leg, some upside down. Some others have thumped their chests, balanced bricks on their heads, taken out bike and car rallies, slashed their wrists and even burnt effigies of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. Some have gone a step further and performed fake last rites of the TN CM, and some have even resorted to clobbering her cutouts with slippers. All of this, for 'Namma Cauvery'. 

Pro-Kannada organisations have done every crazy thing possible to condemn the SC verdict to release Cauvery to Tamil Nadu, culminating with today’s bandh. The bandh was called to protest the Supreme Court verdict which directed Karnataka to release 12 TMC of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

Today, Bengaluru came to a standstill. Responding to the call made by Vatal Nagraj, president of the Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha and face of the pro-Kannada organisations, Narayan Gowda, president of Kannada Rakshana Vedike, along with his supporters, tried to lay siege on the city railway station this morning. The police stopped the activists and took a few into preventive custody.

Pro-Kannada activists also barged into the Kempegowda International Airport, but before they could enter the reservation counters, they were stopped by the police. 

The activists patrolled the city on motorbikes to ensure cars and other vehicles remained off the streets and shops remained closed. “People living in Bengaluru are heavily dependent on the Cauvery, so if they do not cooperate in the bandh, they shall be termed as traitors," said Praveen Shetty of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike.