8 incidents tell us Karnataka not as tolerant as you think
Karnataka state home minister G Parameshwara has unabashedly claimed that the assault on the Tanzanian woman was "not racist", that it was "just a response to an accident" and also that "Bengaluru doesn't have such kind of attitude"! In fact, the minister shared the xenophobic, racial and parochial mindset of the Bangalore mob which subjected the Tanzanian woman to extreme humiliation by assaulting, stripping, parading her and torching her car to flames.
This kind of an attitude runs deep into the psyche of some of the local people in the Congress-ruled state who look with contempt not only foreigners like the Africans, but also Indians, such as people from the Northeast, North or even those from other southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, intellectuals, Hindus, Muslims and Christians.
Apart from the latest incident of assault on the Tanzanian woman, these are eight other incidents in the last three-four years which indicate that Karnataka is the most intolerant state.
1. VHP leader killed during protests against Tipu Sultan's birth anniversary
A Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activist was killed and three others were injured as protests against birth anniversary celebrations of Tipu Sultan, the erstwhile ruler of Mysore, turned violent in Kodagu on November 10, 2015. VHP's Kodagu organising secretary Kutappa was injured during stone pelting between two groups. The local leader was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead. While the Congress-led Karnataka government had announced to celebrate Tipu Sultan's birth anniversary, the BJP had threatened to disrupt any such event in the state as the party regards Tipu as "anti-national" and announced a public boycott of the event.
2. Attack on theatre for showing Malayalam movies
A group of people, reportedly working in a Kannada association related to cinema, attacked Sangeeth theatre in Bangalore for showing Malayalam movies on November 1, 2015. The group accused the theatre management of frequently showing Malayalam films there. The shows were cancelled at after the attack. The police, who were present there, allegedly did not intervene. Two new Malayalam releases - Rani Padmini directed by Aashiq Abu and Amar Akbar Antony directed by Nadirsha - were being shown in the theatre.
3. Riots after a Muslim barber refused to shut saloon on Tuesdays
In a case of intolerance, a riot broke out at Nelliyadi village, 70km from Mangalore, after a Muslim barber refused to shut his shop on October 27, 2015, a Tuesday. As per reports, barber Salman refused to "respect local sentiments" and shut his barber shop on Tuesdays as customary. Local Bajrang Dal leaders complained that "it is well-known that Hindus don't cut their hair on Tuesdays".
4. Young Dalit writer attacked for writing against caste system
Huchangi Prasad, a journalism student in Davanagere, was assaulted on October 21, 2015 for his writings against the caste system. Prasad, a Dalit activist-writer authored a book Odala Kichchu which speaks against the caste system, said the attackers threatened to cut his fingers if he wrote against Hinduism. "A group of eight to nine persons came to SC/ST hostel where I reside and told me that my mother was unwell. Worried I followed them. They took me to a place and started threatening and assaulting me for writing against Hinduism and caste system... They said I was born a Dalit because of the sins I had committed in my previous life," he added.
5. Rationalist MM Kalburgi's murder
The scholar was shot dead at his home in the Dharwad town in north Karnataka on August 30, 2015 by two unidentified assailants. Though the Criminal Investigation Department of the state police is investigating the case, they are yet to get any strong leads. A Rs 5 lakh reward for information leading to the arrest of the killers was also announced by the Karnataka government but to no avail so far.
6. Mangalore church attack
A church in Mangalore was vandalised by unknown miscreants on February 25, 2015. The window panes and doors of the church were damaged, though the idols inside remained untouched. The attack took place barely days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to protect all religious groups, a reaction apparently to a series of similar attacks on churches in Delhi. Similar attacks had taken place in south Karnataka in 2008. According to reports, Karnataka and Maharashtra top Indian states that see attacks on churches.
7. Manipuri student attacked for not speaking Kannada
A Manipuri engineering student was attacked in Bangalore on October 13, 2014 by a group of men because he could not speak Kannada. The trouble started when T Michael Lamjathang Haokip, president of Thadou (Manipuri tribe) Students' Association, Bangalore, and two others were at a roadside eatery. "They kept asking me to speak in Kannada. They said, 'If you outsiders know how to eat food that is produced in Karnataka, you must also know to speak Kannada. This is India not China'," a report quoted him as saying. "I tried to reason with them but they were hysterical," Haokip said. The attack took place in Kothanur, where many outstation students, particularly from the northeast states and Africa, live. Similar attacks in the area had taken place in the past.
8. When 15,000 students from the Northeast ran away from Bangalore
Perhaps in the biggest-ever exodus witnessed in India after partition, nearly 15,000 people from the Northeast left Bangalore for their home states on August 15 and 16, 2012, triggered by a hate campaign against them on the internet and SMS. Several rumours of small tiffs between the locals and people from the Northeast also forced the latter to flee the city.