Chikkamagaluru: Four from Dakshina Kannada Arrested for Skirmishes during Datta Jayanti

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Chikkamagaluru: The district police have picked up four persons from the DK district for creating trouble during last Datta Jayanti observance. This was announced by Santosh Babu, the district’s superintendent of police, at a media meet at the weekend.

dattapitha

Flashback

Bajrang Dal district convener Praveen Khandya and his men had made every effort to ensure that the Datta Jayanti observance at the Baba Budan Giri hills at the end of December 2015 would go on peacefully.

But some Sangh Parivar volunteers from Dakshina Kannada district appeared to be hell-bent on violating the court restrictions. Whereas the hoisting of any flags at certain points had been forbidden by court orders, these outsiders sparked off disturbances.

They crossed the barricades and tried to put up a saffron flag at the disputed land and the cave shrine. When Khadya tried to stop them from doing so, there were arguments between him and the trouble-makers. Khadya’s supporters told the DK men that they were outsiders and they could get away safely. But those from the local areas would suffer the consequences, they argued.

When some media photographers tried to capture these developments, the miscreants tried to snatch and destroy their cameras. The police intervened and controlled the situation, yet one of the cops was injured in the melee.

Chikkamagaluru MLA C T Ravi and Karkala MLA V Sunil Kumar, who were watching the events mutely, realized the ugly turn things were taking and they reportedly left the place quietly, with an excuse that they had to attend a meeting elsewhere.

Even while on their way back to Mangaluru in their vehicles, the DK crowd created problems on the way. They reacted violently when their vehicles were stopped by the police because a procession relating to Eid Milad-un-Nabi was being held in front.

A Maruti Omni car had been damaged because of stone-pelting on the same occasion. Later on, there were reports that the same groups had stopped over at certain points on the ghat roads leading to DK district and harassed tourists in passing vehicles.

Speaking to this correspondent, a few Bajrang Dal members said that those coming from DK showed no accountability since they would, after creating trouble, leave the place safely, whereas the locals had to be answerable to whatever happened there. Yet another one said that the DK groups came only to create problems and had no religious purpose in their visit.

There are reports that some innocent individuals from here were booked by the police, instead of catching those who had come from other districts. They are also cross that only four persons were arrested from DK, while in reality, hundreds were involved in the disturbances.

One or two them went to the extent of saying that if the situation continued, they would stop people coming from other places or introduce a filtering system to enter Baba Budan Giri surroundings the next time around.

Santosh Babu gave the names of the four arrested as Prashant, Shrikant and Shyamsunder from Uppinangady and Shrinivas Kambar from Charmadi. After proper study of footages from CCTV and photographers’ cameras, more arrests could be made, said police sources.


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2 Comments

  1. Santosh Babu gave the names of the four arrested as Prashant, Shrikant and Shyamsunder from Uppinangady and Shrinivas Kambar from Charmadi. – Report

    Hey Rampa, what were their names? any inside info? 😉

  2. Chikkamagaluru MLA C T Ravi and Karkala MLA V Sunil Kumar, who were watching the events mutely-Reports

    Dear readers,

    Since 1999, the Sangh Parivar has conducted the Datta Jayanthi celebrations with impunity, encouraged by a pliant district administration. In that year the District Commissioner set up a managing committee to look into the so-called financial irregularities in the shrine by the Sajjade Nishan. “The committee comprises largely Bajrang Dal activists and Sangh sympathisers,” . The allegation of financial irregularities was only a ruse to take control over the management of the shrine. Irregularities can be looked into separately, he argues. “Will they allow the finances of a Hindu mutt to be scrutinised by the government?”.

    “The legal position is very clear,” A.K. Subbaiah, a leading lawyer from the Janata Dal (Secular), told Frontline. “In 1975 the Supreme Court held that the shrine came under the Muzrai Act and the rituals, to be performed only by the Mujavar, are specified. The whole campaign of the Sangh Parivar is illegal.”

    In 1998, the J.H. Patel government came down firmly on a plan by the Bajrang Dal to “liberate” the shrine, forcing the organisation to call off its campaign. However from the next year onwards, the State government accorded the organization permission to conduct the yearly Datta Jayanti celebrations for three days, during which time the shrine is converted into a Hindu temple.

    The picturesque Bababudangiri hills are situated in Chickmagalur district of Karnataka. The Bababudangiri shrine has been in focus for the past few decades because of the communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims. There are many legends and myths circulating about the shrine. The Hindutva claims that the shrine belongs to the Hindus, for it is the place where the hindu ascetic god “Dattatreya” was “born”. The Muslims claim that , Bababudan ,a Sufi saint meditated in the caves of Budangiri about 1500 years ago. For centuries, Bababudangiri has been the symbol of true secularism and syncreticism.Both Hindus and Muslims have been worshiping Bababudan without any religious conflict. However from the past 2 decades, Hindutva forces have been trying to saffronise this secular space for their own political gains. The Hindutva forces dream of creating a Hindu India and syncretic spaces like Bababudangri , have been an obstacle in the path of “making India hindu”. Hindutva forces create an image of India as a goddess to be saved from the clutches of the Muslims and go back to the glorious Hindu past. The Sangh parivar claim Bababudangiri to be the birthplace of Dattatreya which was usurped by the Muslims. The Sangh Parivar calls for “the fellow Hindu warriors” to save their holy place and restore the “lost”land..This paper tries to put forth the different narratives and myths circulating about Bababudangiri and analyzes how questions of caste have been silenced and gender is foregrounded by the Hindutva in order to saffronise the syncretic shrine of Bababudangiri. The process of saffronisation is done by circulating false stories drawn from the different myths about Bababudan and Dattatreya .

    The syncretic space of Bababudangiri has been saffronised by the hindutva forces. The saffronisation is mobilized by foregrounding the myth of the molestation of Anusuya and silencing the anti brahmanical stance of both sufism and Natha tradition of Dattatreya. A brahmin heritage is created by evoking the figure of Dattatreya as god than that of an anti-brahmanical wandering ascetic. The Hindus minds are poisoned against their muslim neighbours by creating a demonic, overtly sexual image. The hindu men are “awakened” by emasculating them and also evoking the image of the helpless innocent “goddess” who is being physically assaulted by the muslim other. The men are forced to appropriate the stereotype of the other (i.e the Muslims) in order to protect the hindu nation and hindu mother. The hindutva narrative draws on the different myths of Bababudangiri and Dattatreya but also succeeds in creating another pro hindu myth by manipulating gender and caste.

    So it is obvious that our local BJP MLA’s to be silent spectator who are once part of the covert campaign.Will Mughal destroy the vedic history which RSS wanted to rejuvenate centuries later?The Bharatiya Danga party just knows one way to win election–by communal polarisation, riots and creating religious divide. It has perfected it in the last three decades.It may Ayodhya in UP,Bhojshala-Kamaal Maula’s mosque in MP or Hubli Idgha maidan for flag hoisting or Bababudangiri history is rewritten.

    Jai Hind

    Jai Hind

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