The Rational Way of Welcoming Ramadan

Bengaluru, Jan 23: An alleged low-intensity blast on Wednesday late evening in Shanthinagar left three-time Congress MLA NA Harris and six others with burn injuries. The blast reported at around 8:30 pm during a cultural programme gripped the central parts of Bengaluru in a panic especially after the incident of police recovering a live bomb in Mangaluru airport. 

According to sources in Shanthinagar, MLA Harris was attending the birthday celebrations of MGR organized by the locals close to his residence in Shanthinagar. Following the blast, Harris and a few others who standing close to the MLA sustained burn injuries and rushed to the nearby Philomena Hospital immediately and police officials from both the Ashok Nagar and Vivek Nagar visited the spot. The police officials are yet to confirm whether it was a bomb blast or due to the bursting of loud and powerful crackers. 

Chethan Singh Rathore, DCP (Central) visited the hospital and the blast site. A team of forensic science lab experts have also been summoned to the spot to collect samples for ascertaining the nature of the blast. MLA Harris’s son Mohammed Nalapad who rushed to the hospital along with supporters told media persons that they are completely shocked by the incident. 

“He was sitting on a chair and suddenly something that was hurled at him exploded beneath the chair. He sustained injuries to his leg and brought to the hospital. He is being treated by a team of doctors and other injured supporters are also being attended to by the doctors,” Nalapad said. 

Expressing shock over the incident, he said, “My father has been an MLA for 12-years and nothing of this sort had happened before in the constituency. We have no rivals and my father never had any gunmen. We are all shocked and have complained to the jurisdictional police.” 

Meantime, Dr Shankar Prasad, Medical Director, St Philomena’s Hospital explained that Harris and others are currently being treated for minor injuries. “None of them have any open cut injuries and they are being examined further,” Dr Prasad told DH. 

According to Dr Prasad, Harris had a minor blood clot in his left leg which was possibly due to a hard object hitting him during the blast. “We have taken X-Ray and examining further. At the look of it, it seems like a very minor injury,” he added. 

Bengaluru, Mar 5: Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal's wife Priya Bansal has filed a dowry harassment case against the entrepreneur at Kormangala police station in Bengaluru, sources said.

Priya alleged that ahead of their wedding, her father had spent Rs 50 lakh for the arrangements and given Rs 11 lakh in cash to Sachin instead of a car. Further, she has also alleged that Sachin has been pressurising her to transfer all the properties that were in her name to him. However, after refusing to do so her in-laws started harassing her.

A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against Sachin and three others at Kormangala police station in Bengaluru.

The police are investigating the matter.

Further details awaited.

Bengaluru, Mar 11: Heated verbal exchange between Minister K Sudhakar and former Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar in the assembly over disqualification of 17 MLAs last year, continued to disrupt the proceedings on Wednesday, with both opposition and treasury benches pushing for a privilege motion and demanding action.

Chaotic scenes and adjournments marked the House proceedings, with both sides not ready to budge.

As the House met for the day, around 11 am, senior Minister K S Eshwarappa accusing Congress MLA Ramesh Kumar of using "expletive" during a debate last evening, demanded his apology and that he be kept out of the proceedings.

Sudhakar, against whom expletive was allegedly used by Kumar, said, the words used were unpardonable and he should be heard, as he has given notice.

Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah then demanded that he be allowed to speak first as he had given notice on Tuesday itself.

The Congress leader on his part has accused Sudhakar of breaching Kumar's privilege by allegedly making derogatory remarks against him.

Intervening, Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri said he has received breach of privilege notice from both sides and would allow it only after the question hour as per rules.

Though Congress expressed its agreement with the Speaker about letting them raise the matter after question hour, BJP legislators including Ministers said, Ramesh Kumar should be suspended.

Pointing out that Kumar was not inside the House, some ruling party MLAs even called him "escapist" and demanded action against him.

Strongly objecting to it, Siddaramaiah questioned the ruling party's intentions in running the house smoothly.

As this was followed by heated arguments between both sides, the Speaker adjourned the House for 15 minutes.

When the house met after much delay at 12:55 pm, the chaos continued.

As the Speaker allowed Minister Jagadish Shettar to speak, who was requesting permission to raise a point, Siddaramaiah objected to it and said he had given notice first.

He said, "this is not correct, it looks like government doesn't want the House to function, they don't want discussion on the budget, they are purposely blocking the proceedings of the House".

However, some BJP MLAs reacted to this by shouting slogans "shame shame Ramesh Kumar".

As his repeated attempts to conduct the proceedings failed, the Speaker adjourned the House for lunch.

Sudhakar, while speaking during a special discussion on the Constitution on Tuesday evening had made critical remarks against the decision of Kumar, as speaker, to disqualify 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs under the anti-defection law, including him.

Angered by this Kumar, who opposed discussion on the subject, amid heated argument between BJP and Congress members allegedly uttered the expletive, which aggravated the situation and had resulted in pandemonium in the House last evening.