Vandals from a fringe language group on Wednesday attacked business establishments across the city, damaging signboards and billboards that were not in Kannada, as protests demanding that 60% of all such store signage bear the local language took a violent turn.
People associated with the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (Narayana Gowda faction), a fringe group that has vocally advocated for wider Kannada usage in the state, attacked stores in the city’s key markets and business hubs, including MG Road, Brigade Road, Lavelle Road, UB City, Chamarajpet, Chickpet, Kempe Gowda Road, Gandhi Nagar, St Marks Road, Cunningham Road, Residency Road and Sadahalli Gate near Devanahalli.
The Bengaluru police detained the outfit members along with state chief TN Narayana Gowda.
KRV activists set off on a march through the city from Sadahalli Gate in north Bengaluru early on Wednesdayand headed to Cubbon Park, demanding that businesses in the city comply with a 2018 municipality law mandating that 60% of an establishment’s signboards be in Kannada.
The group had set a December 27 “deadline” to adhere to this law.
Earlier this, a video of a KRV supporter threatening shopkeepers went viral. The video showed a campaign vehicle in a narrow alley with shops on both sides. On top of it, a woman holding a microphone could be seen threatening shopkeepers. “This is Karnataka. The Kannadigas are this state’s pride. You go and show your pride in your state. Marwaris, next time you say you do not know Kannada, you will be a target,” she could be heard saying.
“People from various states are doing business in Bengaluru. But they don’t put Kannada nameplates on their shops… If they want to stay back in Bengaluru, then they have to put nameplates on their shops in Kannada or else they have to move to other states,” said the outfit’s state president TN Narayana Gowda as the march began.
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah said action would be taken against those involved in vandalism. “Whoever takes law into their own hands will be punished,” he told reporters.
The police detained Gowda and members of the group responded violently.
The mobs split up, with the first stores and commercial units being targeted in theneighbourhood. Reports soon emerged that the mob had ripped out or defaced signboards of major shops, showrooms, hotels and eateries across the city.
Protesters also targeted the Mall of Asia in Hebbal, smashing flower pots and vandalised English signboards in the complex.
“Today police are providing full protection to the Mall of Asia, but tomorrow who will provide protection? Our activists will protest again tomorrow, until our demand is fulfilled,” Gowda said before he was detained.
Phoenix Marketcity in Whitefield, another major mall in the city, also downed its shutters early.
Staff across establishments in the city too followed suit as news spread, closing their shops as the violence spread. Scared shoppers, meanwhile, fled to safety as mobs made their way through the city, armed with sticks.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry requested that the state government to not initiate any action under the above rule until February 28, the deadline set by the civic body.
Earlier on Tuesday, Tushar Giri Nath, chief commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), said that establishments that did not meet the rule by February 28 next year would be penalised.
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