Kannada activists attack candidates

Activists of the Kannada Protection Force (KPF) in Karnataka on Sunday stormed into exam centres and disrupted railway recruitment examinations in protest against the appearance of north Indian candidates, especially from Bihar, in large numbers.

Following in the footsteps of the Maharashtra Navnirman Senas (MNS) attacks on candidates taking the railway board examination last year, activists of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) stormed examination centers in Mysore and Bangalore where the Railway recruitment tests where being held on Sunday.

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The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (translated as Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, a pro-Kannada outfit) activists were

And the attacks continue: Vedike’s violent past

The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, a pro-Kannada outfit, is split into two factions, one led by T.A. Narayana Gowda and the other by Pavan Shetty.

Both have frequently agitated and called for bandhs over the Kaveri waters issue, the last time being in February 2007 when the Kaveri Tribunal announced its award (which has since been challenged by both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu). On earlier occasions, they have attacked Tamils in Bangalore.

The outfit had whipped up mass hysteria against Tamils after the kidnapping of the late screen idol Rajkumar by Tamil bandit Veerappan.

Stoned cinema halls screening Tamil films in protest against the Hoggenakkal drinking water project

Attacked Belgaum mayor Vijay More, after the town corporation passed a resolution in 2005 saying it wanted to be part of Maharashtra

Often protested against the ‘imposition’ of both Hindi and English in Karnataka, blackening signs, etc. Its stir led to several English medium schools being closed down in Karnataka last year.

demanding a quota for the local youth.

Around 50 activists, led by the right wing outfit’s local unit head Madesh, barged into Mysor’s Yuvaraja’s College — one of the seven centers, where the exam for the appointment of ticket collectors and commercial clerks were being held — shouting slogans against the railway ministry and demanding jobs for the locals.

Madesh charged that a majority of 2000-odd candidates taking the exam were from Bihar. They also alleged “stepmotherly” treatment to Kannadigas in jobs.

Around 42 activists were arrested on charges of tress-pass, criminal intimidation and preventing government officials from doing their duty after they tore question papers and answer sheets and destroyed furniture.

“I believe things went on well after a short-hold up (in one hall of the college). No one was assaulted or roughed up. We have taken 30 people into custody,” Sunil Agarwal, Commissioner of Police, Mysore, told Hindustan Times.

Adding: “We provided additional security to other centers as soon as the incident took place. About 50 candidates have been told to take the exams afresh next Sunday.”

In Bangalore, about a dozed KRV activists disrupted the Karnataka Public Service Commission (for appointment of village accountants to Gram Panchayats) exams as well as the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) examination being held at the Kamalabai High School.

“These activists got into examination halls and crated commotion before they were pulled out by policemen. Those exams resumed after a short break, but RRB has put off the exams by a week,” M R Pujar, joint commissioner (law & order), Bangalore said.

This is the second successive attack by the activists. Last year, too, they had stormed several examination centers.

The MNS and Shiv Sena activists had attacked 17 railway board examination centres in suburban Mumbai on October 20 last year, protesting ‘inadequate representation’ to locals and had chased away candidates from north India.