The “Mangaluru Chalo” bike rally organised by the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Yuva Morcha was aborted soon after it began in Bengaluru on Tuesday, as police took the activists into preventive custody, The Hindu reported. More than 200 bikers had defied prohibitory orders to go ahead with the event to protest against the alleged murders of Hindu activists in Karnataka.
They had reached the city’s Freedom Park before being dragged off their bikes by the police. Eventually, the police took more than 500 activists, including former Karnataka Home Minister R Ashoka, Shobha Karandlaje and Mysuru MP and BJP Yuva Morcha President Pratap Simha, into custody.
The police detained Ashoka and Simha after they blocked the busy Sheshadri Road with others. “The clampdown [on the bike rally] clearly shows that the state government [led by the Congress] is terrified of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s support and organisation in Karnataka,” Ashoka said.
The former Karnataka home minister alleged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had withdrawn all the 175 cases against over 1,600 workers of the Popular Front of India and Social Democratic Party of India, even though their “role is clear” in at least eight murders of pro-Hindu activists.
Ashoka said Siddaramaiah withdrew the cases in 2013 when the Congress came to power in Karnataka. “This gave them a moral boost,” he added. “We demand that all these cases be handed over to the National Investigation Agency.”
Siddaramaiah said the bike rally was denied permission to prevent traffic congestion. “We have no objection for them [the BJP] conducting a conference,” he said, accusing the saffron party of trying to disturb peace in the name of Hindutva.
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