'Mangaluru Chalo' bike rally: BJP defies order, clashes with police in Bengaluru

The  face-off between Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Karnataka government over 'Mangaluru Chalo' rally called by Yuvamorcha, the youth wing of the saffron party, escalated on Tuesday with the party workers clashing with the police at Bengaluru.

The Karnataka Police had denied permission to the rally. But a defiant BJP decided to defy the order and go ahead with the bike rally organised to protest the alleged political killings of its men in the Congress-ruled state. 

Earlier, Dakshina Kannada district and Mangaluru City police had denied permission for the  rally while the BJP vowed that it would go ahead with it. The government will have to take responsibility for any consequence, the party had warned.

The BJP is taking out the massive bike rally of 20,000 youth workers to protest against what it called the "political killings of Hindus" that took place in the last couple of years.

The coastal Karnataka region has Hindu Majority areas that stood with BJP in the past. But the party lost elections in the 2013 Assembly elections, owing to the allegations of illegal mining. Now, BJP wants to regain its clout in the region and to win 30 odd seats there which would be crucial in its efforts to unseat the Congress in the Assembly polls slated for April-May 2018.

Permission denied

Citing different grounds, the police heads from Bengaluru, Kolar, Hassan, Hubli, Chikmagalur, mangaluru, Bellary and Udupi denied permission to the BJP rally. Ahead of the rally, presidents of Yuva Morcha from Mulabagilu, KGF and Srinivaspur had also been arrested, reported ANI.

Police denied permission stating that the rally could spark violence. It warned that anti-social elements could sneak into the crowd and cause law and order disturbances. It could also lead to traffic problems in Bengaluru city, the police said. 

Exposing the 'anti-Hindu' policy

BJP MP from Udupi-Chikmagalur, Shobha Karandlaje told reporters on Monday that the government was creating communal tension. "This is the anti-Hindu policy of government. We want to expose that. So the Congress is scared of our protests and are trying to stop us. We are not against Muslims or any religion," she told News18.

The Congress termed the rally an attempt to stoke violence in communally sensitive regions. BJP state chief B S Yeddyyurappa said that they needed no permission to hold demonstrations. The rally is supposed to converge in Mangaluru on Thursday where Yeddyyurappa will address the rally there as per plan.

Highlighting the numbers

Reports say that this rally was aimed to highlight the number of victims who got killed in the past two years. The BJP says 20 persons had been killed in the period. The party had demanded a ban on organisations like Popular Front of India (PFI) and Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD) that are allegedly behind the killings.

The BJP has reportedly said that victims of politically–motivated killings were similar to the political murders taking placing in Kerala. Despite the arrest of the accused in the murders, the party still wants the cases be handed over to the National Investigation Agency for further probe.