D K Shivakumar draws flak for waving JDS flag

Agencies
October 28, 2019

Bengaluru, Oct 28: Congress leader D K Shivakumar has drawn flak from some of his party leaders for holding the JD(S) flag when he returned here from Delhi after getting bail in a money laundering case.

Shivakumar, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, and in judicial custody at the Tihar Jail, returned on Saturday to a rousing welcome here, where besides Congress leaders, there were those from the JD(S) waiting to receive him.

When he was being taken in a procession in a flower-bedecked vehicle, a JD(S) worker handed over a party flag to him which the Congress leader received, waved it for a while and returned it to him.

A video of the incident has since gone viral.

A video of former Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah criticising Shivakumar for the act, in a private conversation, is also now in wide circulation in social media.

In the video, Siddaramaiah is heard saying that the Lingayats, a prominent community of Karnataka seen backing the BJP, are now distancing themselves with Lingayat strongman and Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, and the Vokkaligas, another dominant community, are disenchanted with JD(S) and H D Kumaraswamy.

Justifying his act, Shivakumar said, "... wherever I go, people give me a number of flags including the Kannada flag and people from all walks of life come to meet me. Even now there are three JD(S) MLAs waiting to meet me. Can I tell them not to come?"

Shivakumar insisted that holding flag was not a big deal as he has been "a born Congressman".

"I came straight to the Congress office, which is a temple for me," he clarified.

Siddaramaiah termed making the video of his private conversation an act of mischief as it was an internal discussion.

Seeking to downplay Siddaramaiah's criticism, Shivakumar said, "Siddaramaiah has lots of love towards me."

Kumaraswamy slammed Siddaramaiah for his comment in the video.

"Siddaramaiah is pure secular and we, who had supported him, are communal," Kumaraswamy sarcastically said.

"Shivakumar might have held the JD(S) flag because some of our party workers went to support him. It doesn't require a big analysis," Kumaraswamy said. 

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News Network
July 31,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 31: The Karnataka government on Wednesday put on hold a controversial proposal to drop certain chapters, including on Islam, Christianity, Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali, from social science textbooks to reduce the 2020-21 syllabi for students in classes 1-10.

Citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption caused to the academic calendar of the year, the government had earlier dropped the chapter on Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali from the Class 7 social science textbook, saying chapters on Tipu Sultan have been retained in the Class 6 and 10 textbooks.

The move did not go down well with the opposition, which saw certain ulterior motives behind the decision.

Apparently under sharp criticism, the Department of Public Instruction issued a new notification on Wednesday "on the directions of the Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar".

There is a delay in opening the schools during the academic year 2020-21 due to COVID-19 pandemic, said the latest order.

In this context, the order said, chapters were dropped to fit in 120 days of the academic year for classes 1 to 10 and the same was published in the department's website.

"However, on the directions of the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, the decision to drop certain chapters has been put on hold. A review will be done following which the deleted chapters will be uploaded in the website," the order read.

Earlier in the day, Mr Kumar had issued a statement, saying that the decision to truncate the syllabus has not been finalised yet. He also made it clear that his department would not remove chapters unnecessarily.

Former chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah had attacked the government on the issue.

"The government, which has failed to control the spread of coronavirus, is using it as an opportunity to push its clandestine agenda of saffronising the textbooks," Siddaramaiah tweeted.

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News Network
February 19,2020

Hassan, Feb 19: A 19-year-old boy, in a bid to impress his girlfriend, stole a sports bike from an OLX seller but cops managed to reach him through her on Tuesday.

The accused, Pramod, who works at a bakery, had been involved in a bike-lifting case two years ago too.

On February 9, Pramod saw an advertisement on online marketing platform OLX from Puneeth, a farmer from Shravanabelagola town, who wanted to sell his sports bike for Rs 1.4 lakh. Pramod called him up and the two agreed to meet around 6pm that evening at Shravanabelagola town bus stand.

Once there, Pramod, a college dropout, assured Puneeth that he would buy the bike but wanted to take it for a test drive. The seller agreed. A few minutes passed and when there was no sign of the bike or Pramod, Puneeth tried calling him. The phone was switched off and could not be contacted since. Puneeth immediately filed a cheating case with the Shravanabelagola police.

SP R Srinivas Gowda and ASP BN Nandini put together a team and began tracing Pramod's call detail records. Maximum calls were made to a single number and it turned out to be his girlfriend's.

Cops called the girlfriend and on Tuesday, asked her to contact him and ascertain his location. They traced him near Hassan city's railway station and nabbed him along with the bike. On interrogation, Pramod confessed that he wanted to impress his girlfriend and take her on long drives on the sports bike.

Police said Pramod, who belongs to Bandithimmanahalli village of Alur taluk, dropped out of college two years ago and has been working at a bakery in Sahyadri Circle.

While working, he has been involved in several incidents of bike-lifting. Cops said he appeared to have strained relations with his family and had taken to crime to make a quick buck.

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News Network
July 6,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 6: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Monday said that the "country will have to learn to live with coronavirus as there are no options".

Yediyurappa made the remark after paying tribute to Babu Jagjivan Ram, on his death anniversary, at a ceremony in Vidhana Soudha.

"We don't have any other option, we have to learn to live with this virus. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the same thing. We have increased ambulances, we have made all arrangements to fight the pandemic. It is very important to safeguard ourselves," he said.

The Chief Minister added that the state government has made many arrangements to combat the widespread illness.

According to the Union Health Ministry, there is 23,474 number of COVID-19 cases in the state and 372 people have died due to the illness.

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