BJP has a fighting chance; in Mandya too saffron party will spring surprise: SM Krishna

Bengaluru, Feb 22: Thanks to joint efforts by the Protector of Emigrants in Bengaluru and Indian Embassy in Qatar, a 26-year-old woman from Karnataka who had been kept in confinement in Qatar has been rescued and brought back to India.

Anupama (name changed) from Holenarasipura in Hassan district arrived in Bengaluru on Thursday night. She was allegedly locked up in a house for 14 days, restrained from using a mobile and wasn't fed. There were three other women with her. On the midnight of February 12, they broke the window panes and fled before contacting local police.

Anupama, a diploma graduate in computer science, was jobless and her friend working in Kuwait suggested she try for a job abroad. She contacted an agency based in Chikkamagaluru which offered her a nanny's job in Qatar. After document verification, the agency demanded she pay Rs 2 lakh but she said she didn't have that kind of money.

The agency sent Anupama on a visitor visa but told her if questioned by immigration officials, she must claim she was visiting her sister. They also gave her a return ticket.

As Anupama was travelling abroad for the first time, she said she was ignorant about several things.

On January 12, Anupama left Bengaluru. But as she reached Qatar, all her documents, including passport, were confiscated by the agency. Her return ticket was cancelled and she was sent to a house to work as babysitter-cum-cook for Rs 30,000. She lived with four other maids in the same house, where they were made to work for 16-18 hours a day.

"I used to wake up around 5.30am every day and had to prepare breakfast for the employers by 6.30am. My work would end around 11pm every day. We never even got time to eat," Anupama told media on Friday. Four days into work, Anupama's nose started bleeding. However, the employers cared little and insisted she continue to work. After 18 days, she requested her employers that she be relieved.

The agency sent her to a house where three women were already present and locked her up with them. "They used to give us a glass of raw rice, an onion, tomato and potato to cook for ourselves. While we got rice every day, we had to use the vegetables for three days. We were not supposed to use mobiles or go out. Two people were monitoring us," she recalled.

Anupama and the others decided to approach police but for that they needed to escape. Around 1.30am on February 12, the four women managed to break window panes and jumped out. They ran for more than a kilometre and managed to approach police, who summoned the agency and got the women to speak to their families.

Anupama called her brother-in-law, who approached the Protector of Emigrants office in Koramangala, Bengaluru. Shubham Singh, PoE in Bengaluru, said they took up the issue with the Indian Embassy in Qatar, which immediately got in touch with Qatar police. Anupama said, "We were kept in prison for a couple of days and were sent to the deportation centre later."

Meanwhile, the Indian embassy got the agency to return the women's documents. However, the agents did not pay their salaries. Two of the women were sent to Hyderabad and the third to Kerala. On Friday, Anupama met Singh at his office, where her statement was recorded. "We have started the process of initiating action against the agency in India," he said.

Bengaluru, Feb 4: The possibility of defeated MLA CP Yogeshwar being inducted into chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s cabinet is causing ripples within the ruling BJP, with many legislators, especially from Kalyana-Karnataka region, raising a banner of revolt.

Several MLAs led by Surapur legislator Narasimha Nayak, also known as Raju Gouda, held a meeting at the Legislators Home on Monday and voiced their opposition.

"When there are more than two dozen MLAs aspiring for a cabinet berth, making a former MLA a minister is beyond logic," Gouda said. "We will convey our feelings to Yediyurappa and state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel." Murugesh Nirani, Paranna Munavalli, Rajkumar Patil, Dattatreya Patil Revoor, Basavaraj Mattimud are among others who attended the meeting. MP Renukacharya, political secretary to the CM and Honnali MLA, was also present at the meeting. "Some more MLAs will join us when we meet again tomorrow," Gouda said.

The MLAs highlighted the issue of caste and regional imbalance in the council of ministers to further their cause. With four from Bengaluru and three from Belagavi district set to take oath on February 6, the share of MLAs from these districts in the cabinet will rise to seven and five respectively. Currently, 16 districts have no representation.

Sources say Yediyurappa and BJP’s national leadership decided to reward Yogeshwar with a cabinet berth for his "active" role in getting 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs to resign and join the BJP, enabling the party to grab power. The party also believes he has the potential to become the Vokkaliga face of the BJP in the Old Mysuru region, where the party’s organisation is weak.

If Yogeshwar is inducted, he will be the second former MLA to make it to Yediyurappa cabinet after deputy CM Laxman Savadi, who lost the 2018 assembly polls. Several party MLAs were unhappy with Savadi’s elevation and are now upping the ante against the party leadership.

"Let Yogeshwar be made Rajya Sabha or council member. We have no problem. But making him minister is not acceptable. If they want to make defeated MLAs ministers, then why not AH Vishwanath and MTB Nagaraj, whose sacrifices brought BJP to power?" said Gouda.

Reports say Yediyurappa has promised Vishwanath and Nagaraj, the disqualified MLAs who lost the bypolls, that they would be made ministers in June. Both met Yediyurappa and secured this assurance. The two were demanding that they be inducted into the cabinet on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Vijayapura MLA Basavanagouda Patil Yatnal urged the CM to evaluate the performance of existing ministers and drop those found non-performing. "Many ministers don’t even come to the Vidhana Soudha. What is the use of having such ministers?" he asked.

Yediyurappa also continued to face pressure to induct Athani MLA Mahesh Kumatalli into the cabinet. The Jarkiholi brothers, Ramesh and Balachandra met Yediyurappa separately on Monday with a request to make Kumatalli, their confidant, a minister.

Apr 23: An FIR has been registered in Nagpur against Republic TV channel's editor Arnab Goswami for promoting social disharmony and accusing Congress President Sonia Gandhi of orchestrating the Palghar lynching.

Three Mumbai residents, including two sadhus, who were on their way to Silvassa on April 16, were lynched by a mob in Gadakchinchale village of Palghar district on the suspicion that they were thieves. Nagpur Police Commissioner B K Upadhyaya said they received a complaint which was turned into an FIR at Sadar police station.

DCP Vinita Sahu said Goswami has been booked under sections 117 (abetting commission of offence by the public or by more than 10 persons), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 153 (B) (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 295 (A) (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 290-A (public nuisance in cases not otherwise provided for), 500 (defamation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the ipc. Another FIR was filed against him in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

In a statement condemning Goswami, Maharashtra Congress said the killing has been wrongly given a communal angle despite ample proof of the contrary. "At a time when country is fighting against coronavirus pandemic, it is very unfortunate that a section of media as well as politicians are trying to create social unrest... [and] spread racial and religious hatred in society. Goswami has tried to create misogyny against women in the society. He made an outrageous remark against the Congress president on a live TV programme. This is completely unethical journalism and we publicly protest it. We believe in brotherhood and cannot accept such animosity. This will be dangerous for the unity and integrity of the country (sic)," it said.