Chief Minister Siddaramaiah held a meeting of superintendents of districts He took the superintendents of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts to task for increasing incidents of communal unrest The police personnel have been strictly told not to spare anyone who instigates communal violence
Visibly irritated over the apparent failure of law and order in Bantwal and surrounding areas in the last one-and-half-month, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took the police top brass of both Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts to task at a meeting convened here in Bengaluru.
He was livid at reports that the senior police officers were not at the spot when the tension escalated due to communal clashes. "What were you doing till five lives were lost? You needed five dead bodies to push you out of the office," he asked the superintendents of police of both the districts, reports a television channel.
Coming down heavily on Dakshina Kannada SP Sudheer Kumar Reddy and Udupi SP KT Balakrishna, CM Siddaramaiah sought to know whether they believed things would return to normalcy if they sat in their offices. "How many times have you gone on rounds to the affected spots? Why even after 45 days, you have not been able to bring the situation under control?" Siddaramaiah is reported as asking.
He wondered how the police could allow the BJP leaders to hold a protest meeting when the prohibitory orders were in place in the region. "Do you have an explanation for it," he asked the police. BJP leaders led by parliamentarians Shobha Karandlaje and Nalin Kumar Kateel had addressed a massive protest gathering at Bantwal condemning the attack of RSS member Sharath Madiwala, last week.
As the opposition party squarely blamed the Congress government led by Siddaramaiah for the unrest in the region, Siddaramaiah convened an emergency meeting of police officials to review the situation. He asked the police not to spare anyone who indulges in inciting communal violence in the region. "Members of Karnataka Forum for Dignity, Popular Front of India, RSS, Bajrang Dal and Sri Ram Sene or anyone who stoke communal hatred in the region should be put behind bars," he said. The region that was once known for its tolerance has turned out be a laboratory to experiment by communal organisations, today, observed Siddaramaiah. The state government will not tolerate this at any cost, reports a television channel.
