Karnataka Police Arrest 41 Members of Pro-Kannada Group For Disrupting Hindi Programme
New Delhi: The Karnataka police have arrested 41 members of the Kannada Rakshana Vedike (KRV) on Thursday (September 25) after they disrupted a Hindi programme at a five-star hotel in central Bengaluru and ransacked the premises.
On the third day of the 'Hindi Saptaha' (Hindi Week) programme organised by the Committee of Parliament on Official Language, the KRV members barged inside the Taj West End Hotel where the event was being conducted and carried out vandalism.
They raised slogans, tore up flex posters and smashed furniture, decrying what they said was the ongoing "imposition" of Hindi over Kannada and other regional languages, reported Deccan Herald.
The Committee of Parliament on Official Language comes under the Minstry of Home Affairs' Department of Official Language.
"We had information that MPs from northern states were present at the event and a discussion was being held on how to spread and impose Hindi. Our call is for all languages to have equal rights and status," KRV state organisation secretary Arun Javagal told the newspaper.
The High Grounds police said that between 10.45 am and 11 am on Thursday, about 30 to 40 members of an organisation illegally entered the venue in protest against the meeting agenda. Thereafter, they obstructed the work of government officials present, caused a temporary disruption to the meeting, said the police in a statement.
"The police immediately arrived at the scene, took the protestors into custody, and controlled the situation. Consequently, the meeting faced a brief interruption but was completed as per the pre-scheduled programme owing to the timely intervention of the police. A case was registered against the protestors at the High Grounds police station, and legal action was taken. A total of 41 protestors were arrested and produced before the 1st ACJM Court, which ordered judicial custody of the protesters,” the police statement added.
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