How the saffron leaders provoked hate-filled bhatks to vandalize graves at Bababudangiri

coastaldigest.com news network
December 4, 2017

Chikkamagaluru, Dec 4: Clad in saffron, they call themselves the devotees of Sree Guru Dattatreya. But, their action proves that what lies in their heart is mere communal hatred and not devotion. On December 3, the last day of the controversial Datta Janyanti, a three day “religio-political utsav” at the historic Bababudangiri shrine, they showed the world what ‘religion’ and faith meant to them by trying to demolish graves.

In fact the so called devotees were apparently provoked by the hardline Hindutva leaders and politicians belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party. After BJP leader and Chikkamagaluru MLA C T Ravi and others stopped their provocative speeches, some of their bhakts assembled at Bababudangiri attempted to break the barricades and enter the disputed site of holy cave shrine Sree Guru Dattatreya Bababudan Swamy Dargah.

Apart from MLA, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Suryanarayana Rao and Saidatta Raghunatha Guruji were the prime speakers in the programme organised to mark the occasion.

Mr Ravi, who displayed some documents to the audience, claimed that the records proved that the shrine was a Hindu place of worship. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was delaying appropriate action in this regard only to satisfy his party’s vote bank, he alleged, while remarking: “how long should we wait?” “We are fighting for justice and in the Kurukshetra war, only those with truth and justice will win.”

He went on to claim that most of the graves in the disputed site were fake.

Mr Rao called upon the audience to always refer to the shrine as Datta Peetha and stop using the word Bababudangiri. “The State government is making efforts to retain this place as a centre of harmony. We will not let that happen. As in the case of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, I am hopeful that our struggle will soon yield desired results”, he said.

Minutes after these speeches, a few youths barged into the burial ground and attempted to damage tombstones. Before the police could rush to the spot and take control, one of the tombstones was uprooted. The police had to resort to mild lathi-charge.

Reacting to the incident, Mr. Ravi said it was a minor incident expected in a big event. “When thousands of people are gathered, such things do happen. Placing saffron flags have happened in the past as well,” he said.

When it was brought to his notice that the burial ground was targeted for the first time, the MLA maintained there was no intention of uprooting the structures. “If we wanted to damage the structures, why should we do it in the presence of such a large number of policemen?” he argued.

Also Read: Datta Jayanti: Saffron clad bhakts resort to violence at Bababudangiri

Comments

raji
 - 
Tuesday, 5 Dec 2017

@well wisher, first of all i dont think you are muslim, and what you are stating is a way you plan to make brother enemy of brother. hence that is the bigger sin check with any muslim imam and stop doing kafir works please..

Asif UK
 - 
Monday, 4 Dec 2017

I dont understand why SDPI people keep silence for this crime...??????? 

Well Wisher
 - 
Monday, 4 Dec 2017

Dear Bajrangi bhaijans,

 

Islam never promotes idol worshipping. Unfortunately, Dargah worship has become an evil nowadays among so-called muslims. Worshipping other than Allah is an unforgivable sin.  Those who do this & did not ask forgiveness before their death they will do well in hellfire. Dargah & Durga are nothing but the 2 faces of a coin. Worship the creator only.

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News Network
March 20,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 20: Two COVID-19 positive patients in Karnataka have fully recovered and will be discharged today.

Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said: "Two COVID-19 positive patients have completely recovered and will be discharged tomorrow. They will be kept under home quarantine for 14 days as a precautionary measure."

The number of COVID-19 positive patients in Karnataka stands at 14 as of today.

"The total number of positive cases of COVID19 in India stands at 173, including 25 foreigners. Four deaths (1 each) have occurred in Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra," said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in a statement.

According to official data provided by the Ministry of Health, as many as 15 people infected with the virus have been discharged after receiving treatment.

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News Network
February 19,2020

Feb 19: Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty was once a typical billionaire with a taste for the high-life.

He splurged on a private jet, vintage cars and two entire floors of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. His website shows him hobnobbing with politicians, Bill Gates and Bollywood royalty.

“The thrill of speed and freedom makes me love cars,” Shetty, 77, told local reporters last year.

Shetty had more than enough money -- at least on paper -- to afford such a lifestyle from companies he helped found, including hospital operator NMC Health Plc and financial services firm Finablr Plc. On Dec. 10, his stakes in the public companies were valued at $2.4 billion, making up the bulk of a fortune spanning education, hospitality and one of the world’s oldest tea companies.

Then, a week later, Carson Block came along.

Block’s investment firm, Muddy Waters, issued a report criticizing NMC’s accounts and disclosing a short position. Since then, Muddy Waters’s scrutiny has snowballed into a troubling scenario for Shetty that sheds light on his complex share arrangements and casts doubts about his net worth. His holdings in Finablr and NMC are worth $885 million, but Shetty’s fortune may now be just a fraction of that, depending on the size of his borrowings.

Filings this month show that Shetty pledged a quarter of his NMC stake against loans with First Abu Dhabi Bank and Zurich-based Falcon Private Bank. Two other shareholders may own half of his reported stake. Another lender -- Al Salam Bank Bahrain -- has already sold some of those shares to enforce security over a loan for Shetty, and NMC said Tuesday that First Abu Dhabi Bank sold another chunk earlier this month.

The situation “seems to have gone beyond some of the issues that Muddy Waters focused on initially,“ said Gavin Launder, a fund manager at Legal & General Investment Management, who owned shares in NMC until October. “The increased scrutiny has unearthed other issues.”

Law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has launched a review of Shetty’s holdings at his request, a spokesperson for the Indian-born businessman said, declining to comment further until the analysis is completed. Shetty resigned Sunday as NMC’s chairman.

In its Dec. 17 report on NMC, Muddy Waters hinted at potential overpayment for assets, inflated cash balances and understated debt. Shares of the United Arab Emirates’ biggest private health-care provider have since plunged 67%, and the firm is now the focus of takeover speculation. The sell-off also spread to Finablr, whose stock has tumbled 64% in that span.

NMC has disputed Muddy Waters’s claims, and the company hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh to conduct an independent review of the short seller’s allegations. Meanwhile, local regulators “are making inquiries with the relevant parties,” a spokesperson for the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority said.

Shetty is hardly the only ultra-wealthy person to leverage his assets. Elon Musk has used his shares in Tesla Inc. to obtain personal loans, while Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison has put up millions of the company’s shares to fund a lavish lifestyle that includes trophy properties, America’s Cup teams and the Indian Wells tennis facility in California.

But such deals can also sour, as demonstrated by Shetty’s lenders selling shares his investment firm pledged. He and his advisers are investigating details of the sales as part of their legal review, according to filings.

To complicate matters, Shetty pledged another batch of NMC stock in 2018 as part of a so-called equity collar arrangement with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that uses options to limit the impact from share moves. Last month, he also pledged most of his stake in Finablr to refinance a loan from the company’s takeover of foreign-exchange firm Travelex for about $1.2 billion.

BRS Ventures Investment, the UAE-based holding company for most of Shetty’s assets, doesn’t report consolidated financials, preventing a complete analysis of his net worth. His other assets include a catering company, a waste-management firm and pharmaceutical business Neopharma, which four months ago was in the early stages of planning for an initial public offering.

Block, 43, earned his reputation as a short seller a decade ago through targeting U.S.-listed Chinese companies that he claimed were frauds. More recently, his San Francisco-based firm focused on British litigation-finance firm Burford Capital Ltd. and Japanese biotech stock PeptiDream Inc. Short sellers seek to benefit from a decline in a company’s share price.

Shetty founded NMC in 1975 after moving to Abu Dhabi from his native India. He created Finablr two years ago to consolidate his financial brands before listing it on the London Stock Exchange in 2019.

Block said he didn’t anticipate NMC’s shareholding drama.

“I wouldn’t have been able to predict that we’d get these bizarre disclosures about unclear share ownership coming out of the company,” he said in a Feb. 13 phone interview. “This has been obviously a more dramatic unraveling than we usually see.”

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News Network
May 10,2020

Bengaluru, May 10: Amid the coronavirus lockdown, two police inspectors were suspended for their alleged involvement in the illegal sale of cigarettes.

"Two police inspectors suspended after an enquiry found their involvement in illegal sale of cigarettes during the lockdown in Bengaluru," informed Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil while speaking to news agency.

More details in this regard are awaited.

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