When top judges say democracy is at stake, media focus on Sunny Leone

coastaldigest.com news network
January 13, 2018

Within a day after four senior judges of Supreme Court broke their silence on alleged corruption in judiciary and warned that democracy in India is at stake, the mainstream media across India in general and poll-bound state of Karnataka in particular, have been successful in diverting the people’s attention by focusing on porn star-turned-Bollywood super star Sunny Leone.

India Today on Saturday morning broke the news of a couple of leaders of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV), a hardline Kannada outfit, demanding a huge amount to facilitate smooth functioning of an event of the sensational star on upcoming Valentine’s Day in Bengaluru where her New Year Eve show was cancelled due to security reasons.

Readymade breaking news?

The sensational story was based on a sting operation wherein leaders of two factions of KRV were caught on camera demanding money to make sure that no Kannadigas disrupt Sunny’s show.

In a video, Anjanappa, vice-president of Narayan Gowda-led KRV faction, can be seen stating that they have the power to close down the entire state. He even said that if they want Sunny Night to be held, they wanted Rs 30 lakh in advance and Rs 10 lakh after the programme. He also promised to be personally present there to monitor things.

Another video shows R Ranjith, vice-president of KRV faction led by Praveen Shetty, demanding Rs 30 lakh to provide protection from untoward situations and to allow Sunny's programme in Bengaluru. He even promised to arrange for 300 KRV members who would give protection to the entire programme. He demanded Rs 15 to 20 lakh in advance and the rest to be given soon after the programme.

However, none of the above two videos are fresh. The TV channel had reportedly obtained the videos a few days ago. The videos helped the channel to create a sensational braking news within 24 hours after the senior judges held a historic press meet and went public with complaints against the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

Though it was a special story by India Today, several other news channels including Times Now too gave wide coverage to the story and thus diverted the people’s attention from the grave allegations made by the senior judges.

On the other hand, Enforcement Directorate’s sudden raids against Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, served as another attention diverter for the media on Saturday.

Comments

Pulimunchi
 - 
Saturday, 13 Jan 2018

So far people were going to judges seeking justice. Now judges have come to public for justice. This is quite expected when mass murders assume power.

Kannadiga
 - 
Saturday, 13 Jan 2018

I agree that media is playing diversionary tactic. But one cannot ignore the extortion tactics of so called Kannada groups. Need to put an end to all such goondagiri in India.

Arif
 - 
Saturday, 13 Jan 2018

Now it's a need of the hour for Congress  to plan and make a strong  strategy team and protest nation wide against safronisation of courts.. Where is youth congress,  where is Rahul where is Congress Bade Bade Leaders? 

Madhu
 - 
Saturday, 13 Jan 2018

Rahul Kanwal is anchoring the Sunny Leone – KRV episode in Indian Today as if Donald Trump vacated his post to make Amit Shah the president of United States. All are #Presstitutues

Poor Indian
 - 
Saturday, 13 Jan 2018

This is not the first time. Since Modi came to power Indian media doing the same. When CBI judge BH Loya, who was hearing a case against BJP president Amit Shah, was murdered, media was busy in debating about Padmavati! 

Anonymous
 - 
Saturday, 13 Jan 2018

Now 100% suiting the name - PRESSTITUTES

Danish
 - 
Saturday, 13 Jan 2018

The diversion attention itself shows democracy is at stake

Kumar
 - 
Saturday, 13 Jan 2018

People fed up by hearing corruption. So loosing inerest is nothing new. Sunny is the new trend

Unknown
 - 
Saturday, 13 Jan 2018

No need of excessive influence of media. Sunny is a  weakness of many people

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News Network
July 22,2020

Mangaluru, Jul 22: As many as 184 people from Karnataka stranded in UAE arrived at Mangalore International Airport.

According to sources, the chartered flight, which landed on Tuesday night, was arranged by the UAE Karnataka Cultural Foundation and Beary Cultural Foundation for Kannadigas who had been stranded following the lockdown and also those who had lost their employment.

A team of officials with Puttur Assistant Commissioner Yathish Ullal and Horticulture Department Assistant Director Praveen who were in charge of quarantine facilities for international passengers verified the documents and sent them for institutional quarantine.

Of the 184 passengers, 141 had remained quarantined in Mangaluru while 42 left for Udupi and one to Honnavara in Uttara Kannada, said sources.

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News Network
February 3,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 3: A wave of dissatisfaction has hit the six-month-old BJP government against the backdrop of chief minister B S Yediyurappa's announcement to induct 13 aspirants in the second cabinet expansion on February 6.

In the first cabinet expansion, the chief minister had inducted 17 ministers on August 20, 2019.

Among the 13, ten will be those defectors from Congress and the JD(S) who were disqualified earlier and won the assembly by-election in December last year.

The rest will be the 'native BJP leaders', as deputy chief minister Govind Karjol put it.

Speculations are rife that Mahadevapura MLA Arvind Limbavali, Hukkeri MLA Umesh Katti and C P Yogeshwar, who had lost to H D Kumaraswamy from Channapatna assembly segment,would be inducted.

If Yogeshwar is included in the cabinet then he will bethe second minister after Deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi who had lost and yet made it to the cabinet.

The possible induction of Yogeshwar and Savadi, who was made deputy chief minister despite losing the assembly elections, are also a "reason" for discontent in the BJP.

Hectic activities began in the power corridor and MLAs started forming groups to impress upon the chief minister to include their members in the ministry.

While one group was from the "Kalyana Karnataka" region, the others were the defectors who will be excluded in the cabinet expansion.

A few MLAS from 'Kalyana Karnataka' region or erstwhile Hyderabad-Karnataka region comprising six districts, met at the Legislature Home and held a meeting.

The meeting was led by Shorapur MLA Narasimha Nayak akaRaju Gouda and Honnalli MLA M P Renukacharya.
The MLAs of the Kalyana Karnataka region were unanimous that their backward region should get representation in the cabinet.

Later, Gouda met the Chief Minister and requested that their region be given adequate representation in the cabinet, which is lacking development.

Talking to reporters, Gouda said, "We had given representations to all the MPs, MLAs and the chief minister. Today also we all had a meeting and later called on the Chief Minister requesting him to make any MLA from our region a minister."

He said any imbalance in cabinet expansion will cause trouble to the MLAs from Kalyana Karnataka region.

"If you make the defeated candidates ministers then include 120 people in the cabinet," an aggrieved Gouda taunted.

Renukacharya too echoed the same sentiments.

"If you give preference to the defeated candidates then what will happen to those who won the election? Where should the winners of election go? We emphasise upon giving preference to the winners."

On the other hand, the defectors who jumped the Congress and the JD(S) ship and helped form the BJP government too had a meeting in Bengaluru, said BJP sources.

They were unanimous that not only the 11 MLAs who won theelection be made ministers but also A H Vishwanath and M T BNagaraj who had unsuccessfully contested the assembly by- polls from Hunasuru and Hoskote on a BJP ticket.

Vishwanath, who was quite vocal on Sunday for dropping his name, was mellowed down on Monday after meeting Yediyurappa.

However, his insistence for getting a cabinet berth remained intact.

"I did not make any proposal before him and will not do it in future because he (Yediyurappa) knows what has to be done,"Vishwanath told reporters after meeting the chief minister.

When he was reminded of Yediyurappa's statement that therewere legal complications in making him a minister, Vishwanath said, "This government has legal experts and the advocate general. They will speak."

Amid speculations that Athani MLA Mahesh Kumathalli may not get a cabinet berth in the reshuffle, the defected MLAs led by Gokak BJP MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi, had a meeting to decide their future strategy, said party sources.

Currently, there are 18 ministers, including the chief minister, in the cabinet, which has a sanctioned strength of 34. Sixteen berths are vacant.

The cabinet expansion exercise will be a delicate task for Yediyurappa as he has to ensure adequate representation for various castes and regions.

The ministry already has eight Lingayats, including Yediyurappa; three Vokkaligas; a Brahmin; three SCs, two OBCs and one ST.

Opposition parties have been critical of the BJP and Yediyurappa over the delay in the cabinet expansion, alleging he is weak and his administration has collapsed.

Reacting to the cabinet expansion, former chief minister Siddaramaiah quipped, "A drama is taking place. Let it happen on February 6. Afterwards we will see what all happens."

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News Network
April 28,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 28: A local court in Karnataka on Tuesday granted bail to a CRPF commando who was arrested by state police officials for alleged assault on them during COVID-19 lockdown duty, a charge contested strongly by the paramilitary.

The jawan has been taken to the jungle warfare training school of the paramilitary force in Belagavi district, a senior official said.

Constable Sachin Savant of the 207th CoBRA battalion was granted regular bail by a court located in Chikodi taluka of the district, he said.

A team of CRPF and CoBRA officials were present in the court during the proceeding during which the state police did not oppose the bail, the official said.

The commando was arrested by police on April 23 from Examba village (Belagavi district) when he was washing his bike outside his house without wearing a mask, as required under the coronavirus prevention protocol.

An altercation and physical fight took place between the two sides, following which the trooper was taken to the local police station and arrested.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had on Monday taken up the case with the Karnataka director general of police (DGP), calling the incident "unpleasant".

The CRPF letter said commando Savant was "manhandled, ill-treated, paraded to the police station barefooted, kept in chains and handcuffs" by police personnel and sought the intervention of state Director General of Police Praveen Sood.

The paramilitary had said that from the scrutiny of a viral video on social media of the incident "it is apparent that the conduct of the police personnel was not citizen-centric".

A police report had said the CoBRA commando "started the altercation" with the beat constable and another policeman accompanying him, and "assaulted" them.

As per the official Twitter handle of the Karnataka DGP's on Monday evening, "IGP (inspector-general of police) Belagavi has been asked to enquire into the incident involving the CRPF constable and action will be taken against guilty after receipt of the report".

The Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) unit of the CRPF specialises in guerrilla tactics and jungle warfare.

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