On Saturday, the police detained ex-Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and three other Congress leaders (Dinesh Gundu Rao, Rizwan Arshad, and K Suresh) in Bengaluru during their march against the Bidar Sedition case. The Congress leaders were trying to take out a protest march from the Gandhi Statue in Race Cross Road to the Chief Minister’s office.
Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress leaders Dinesh Gundu Rao, Rizwan Arshad, & K Suresh detained by police after they tried to take out a protest march to the CM’s office. Congress is protesting against Bidar sedition case, alleging misuse of police department by the state government. pic.twitter.com/O8eJk2mXYx
— ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2020
In the infamous Bidar sedition case, the headmistress of Shaheen school, Fareeda Begum was arrested by the police along with a person named Nazbunnisa, the mother of a Class V student on January 30, after a contentious Anti-CAA play was enacted on January 21 during the annual day celebrations of the school.
The arrest was made on the complaint of an ABVP activist named Nilesh Rakshyal who alleged that the play stirred “anti-national sentiments.” He had added that the children spoke of hitting Prime Minister Narendra Modi with slippers. Sedition charges were thus pressed against the duo who are now out on conditional bail.
The cops also booked the school management and journalist Yousuf Raheem who had uploaded the video on his social media page. The police said that the student was made to utter “unconstitutional words” by the mother who added contentious dialogues to the original script of the play. The school authorities have however claimed that no such drama that showed PM Modi in a negative light was ever enacted in school.
Citing the sedition case, the Congress party had alleged misuse of police power by the BJP-led Karnataka Government. While being detained by the police, Siddaramaiah said, “Police have no right to suppress or take away our rights.”
He also claimed that the current political dispensation was filing fake cases of sedition against people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Siddaramaiah had resigned as the Leader of the Opposition in December last year, following BJP’s clean sweep in Karnataka by-polls.
