4 from Karnataka - 2 Brahmins, 1 Vokkaliga, 1 Lingayat - in PM Modi’s new cabinet

News Network
May 31, 2019

Bengaluru, May 31: Four parliamentarians from Karnataka – three from lower house and one from upper house – have found a spot in the newly formed NDA government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Bengaluru North MP D V Sadananda Gowda, Dharwad MP Pralhad V Joshi, and Belgaum MP Suresh Angadi were sworn in at a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan along with Rajya Sabha MP Nirmala Sitharaman.

By giving representation to Lingayats and Vokkaligas, the saffron party has tried to strike a balance in seniority, caste and region while selecting the names.

Gowda was inducted as the party wanted to give representation to southern Karnataka as well as the Vokkaliga community, which primarily votes for the JD(S) and Congress. The party re-inducted Nirmala Sitharaman, Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, who is a Brahmin. 

Joshi is also a Brahmin while Angadi comes from the core vote base of the BJP, Lingayats.

Joshi, a former President of BJP Karnataka unit, also served as the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas while Angadi served as Chairman of Committee on House which allocates accommodation to MPs.

In the Modi government’s first term in office, D V Sadananda Gowda (Vokkaliga), G M Siddeshwara (Lingayat), along with Ananth Kumar (Brahmin) had found a place.

Later, when the Cabinet rejig happened, Ramesh Jigajinagi, a Scheduled Caste leader, was inducted after dropping Siddeshwara.

Sadananda Gowda, former Chief Minister of Karnataka, held several important portfolios in the previous government including Railways and Law and Justice and Chemical and Fertilisers.

Uttara Kannada MP Anant Kumar Hegde has also not found a place. A senior-most MP, having won Lok Sabha elections consecutively for six terms, the party decided not to re-induct him as he faced the ire of party leaders as well as the opposition for his controversial statements.

Even Jigajinagi, who had held the portfolio of Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation, was not re-inducted as the prime minister was not happy with his performance.

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News Network
January 17,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 17: Six persons, said to be supporters of Social Democratic Party of India, have been arrested in connection alleged attempt to murder a member of RSS in Bengaluru.

Varun Bhopala (34), a resident of Sarakki in JP Nagar, was attacked while he was on his way to his father's shop near JC Road after attending a pro-CAA event organised by the RSS and other Hindutva organisations on December 22, 2019.

Police commissioner Bhaskar Rao said the arrested are Irfan alias Mohammed Irfan (33), Syed Akbar alias Mechanic Akbar (46), Syed Siddiq Akbar (30), Akbar Basha (27), Sanaulla Sharif (28) and Sadiq UL Ameen (39) - all residents of KG Halli in East and North Bengaluru.

Rao said the arrested wanted to attack and kill the leaders who took part in the pro-CAA event. They initially pelted seven stones to scatter the crowd so that they can attack the leaders, but they failed. Later, they saw Varun walking out of the crowd wearing a saffron shirt. So the arrested followed him and attacked him with lethal weapons. Assuming he is dead, the gang fled on their bikes towards Bidadi.

''The SDPI activists were funded by their leaders to create a disturbance, kill Hindu organisation leaders,'' Rao said. "I have formed a special team to investigate in-depth about the SDPI activities and take necessary action,'' he added.

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News Network
February 28,2020

Feb 28: The Supreme Court on Friday granted more time to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a counter affidavit on a petition filed by Karnataka BJP leader and mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy seeking permanent relaxation on his bail condition to allow him to visit Karnataka's Bellari and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee listed the matter for further hearing on March 16 after the CBI sought more time to do file the counter affidavit.

Earlier, the apex court had issued a notice to the CBI and sought its response on the plea.

Last year, the Court had allowed Reddy to visit the Ballari district for a period of two weeks to meet his father-in-law, who the petitioner claimed had suffered a stroke and also allowed him to move a bail modification application seeking permanent relaxation of his bail condition.

In January 2015, the Supreme Court had granted bail to Reddy in an illegal mining case involving Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) on the condition that he will not visit any of the mining zones in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh.

By the time he was granted bail, Reddy had already spent over three years in prison.

Reddy and his brother-in-law BV Srinivas Reddy, who was the Managing Director of OMC, were arrested by the CBI on September 5, 2011.

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News Network
February 17,2020

Hubli, Feb 17: A local court here on Monday sent three Kashmiri students who were arrested on charges of sedition to judicial custody till March 2.

They were arrested for allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans and posting a video of the same on social media, told police.

All three were taken into custody by the police on Sunday night and were produced before a local court on Monday.

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