The Karnataka BJP government has set up a Claims Commission, on the directive of the Karnataka High Court to recover damages to properties during mob attacks in Bengaluru on August 11, 2020. It must fast track the police probe if an alleged blasphemous social media post caused the riot. STEPHEN DAVID reports for The Leaflet from Bengaluru..———.TUCKED away in a corner of East Bengaluru is a crowded locality called Devarajeevanahalli. Loosely translated in Kannada, it means, 'locale of God's life'. But in the dead of night on August 11, 2020, it was anything but that. Allegedly triggered by a blasphemous Facebook post against a holy prophet, armed mobs went on a rampage turning the area into a burning hell..The mob, who had gathered in hundreds despite a Covid-19 pandemic restriction to maintain social distancing, didn't even spare a local police station, setting fire to a police vehicle and other properties in their way..Although the police were caught off guard, a strong force led by Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant, quelled it in record time. The police were forced to tear gas and fire live ammo where three succumbed to gunshot wounds. Within a few days, they rounded up more than 300 suspects registering over 50 cases including under the Unlawful Association Prevention Act and the Goonda Act..“Whether Yeddyurappa manages to send a tough message through the CC or not, members of his party are sure to explore a political calculus, the mathematical study of continual change. It is about political arithmetic at the end of the day..Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa reportedly gave a free hand to the cops to probe the trigger behind the riot. The police are exploring both the communal and political angles involved..A few hours later, early around 5 am on Aug 12, the city police chief's tweet gave the investigators a clue behind the riot: "accused Naveen arrested for posting derogatory post…".The ancestral house of the area MLA Akhanda Sreenivas Murthy, the uncle of Naveen, was burnt to the ground in the melee. Murthy and his family members escaped from the jaws of death in the nick of time..Murthy is a second time MLA from the reserved Pulikeshinagar constituency which includes eight segments including Devarajeevanahalli whose corporator and a former city mayor was an aspirant for the Pulikeshinagar ticket in the last assembly elections..The rivalry between the two is a matter of public knowledge. Both are in the same party but have identified themselves with two warring leaders within Congress. Police are probing this angle also and have questioned the former mayor and a local municipal corporator in an attempt to explore the political angle..Murthy, a former JDS MLA who crossed over to the Congress and is identified to be close to Siddaramaiah, the former Chief Minister and leader of the Opposition, is an affable man who got along fine with the people in his constituency that had a majority of minorities, including linguistic minorities like Tamils and Telugus..“The ancestral house of the area MLA Akhanda Sreenivas Murthy, the uncle of Naveen, was burnt to the ground in the melee. Murthy and his family members escaped from the jaws of death in the nick of time.."Even I am puzzled that my house was burnt to the ground by the mob. I grew up there and I have lost almost everything," a distraught Murthy told The Leaflet. "I have asked for a CBI probe to explore all the angles. I have no enemies here.".He pointed out that he is estranged from his nephew who has been picked up for allegedly posting the derogatory social media post that seemed to have been exploited by vested interests to spark the fire..Even before the city police went deep into exploring this angle, the Karnataka government knocked at the doors of the Karnataka High Court to push for a Claims Commission [CC] based on a 2009 Supreme Court guideline..Supreme Court guidelines on Claims Commission.The apex court had spelled out a few guidelines:.1. Wherever mass destruction to property takes place due to protests, the High Court may issue suo motu action and set up a machinery to investigate the damage caused and to award compensation..2. The High Court or Supreme Court, as the case may be, may appoint a sitting or retired High Court judge or a sitting or retired District judge as a Claims Commissioner to estimate the damages and investigate liability..3. An Assessor may be appointed to assist the Claims Commissioner; the Claims Commissioner and the Assessor may seek instructions from the High Court or Supreme Court to summon the existing video or other recordings from private and public sources to pinpoint the damage and establish nexus with the perpetrators of the damage..4. The principles of absolute liability shall apply once the nexus with the event that precipitated the damage is established; the liability will be borne by the actual perpetrators of the crime as well as organisers of the event giving rise to the liability-to be shared, as finally determined by the High Court or Supreme Court..5. Exemplary damages may be awarded to an extent not greater than twice the amount of the damages liable to be paid..6. Further, damages shall be assessed like damages to public property, private property, causing injury or death to a person or persons, cost of the actions by the authorities and police to take preventive actions..The Claims Commissioner will report to the High Court or Supreme Court which will determine the liability after hearing the parties..“Taking a lead from the police, Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai called for a meeting with leaders of social media giants to find ways to disallow offensive media posts like the one that triggered the recent riot..It is going to be a long-drawn battle before the accused bank transfer the damages to the state. But the state Government's rationale in going for a CC is that it will send a tough message for future rioters..A 'fact-finding committee' comprising a few retired government servants and others, that the state tourism minister CT Ravi tweeted was "a government-appointed one" submitted its 50-odd page report to the CM in which it noted that the Aug 11th riot was "pre-planned and organised" and "undoubtedly communally motivated". The report said that the mob "specifically targeted certain prominent Hindus in the area, and the entire incident qualifies to be a riot against the state.".Taking a lead from the police, Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai called for a meeting with leaders of social media giants to find ways to disallow offensive media posts like the one that triggered the recent riot..Bengaluru's tryst with riots earlier.Bengaluru's rich cosmopolitan character is her strength. It survived the worst communal flare-up that I was an eyewitness to in December 1986 in the garden city of Bengaluru following the publication of a fictional story in a local English daily that some minority community leaders interpreted as offensive and blasphemous. There was no social media transmission, but the word-of-mouth publicity was fast enough to turn the city upside down in a matter of a few days where 16 lives were lost, and hundreds of properties were damaged..In the 1991 riots, hundreds of Tamils from the city were hounded out by Kannada extremists over the interstate dispute over sharing the Cauvery river..“For demagogues who back rabble-rousing rebels looking for a dangerous cause, it may be surprising that Devarajeevanahalli, the epicenter of the recent rampage, has sprung back to normalcy to become what it is, "a locale of God's life"..After a famous Kannada superstar Rajkumar died in April 2006, his fans went berserk in parts of the city owing to what the then a police chief termed "an emotional outburst" leaving a trail of destruction of property. Just outside the Kanteerava studio where Rajkumar's body lay, a mob lynched a 25-year-old policeman Manjunath Malladi, who was just doing his law and order duty. The law has taken its course as it will even in the recent city riot case..Whether Yeddyurappa manages to send a tough message through the CC or not, members of his party are sure to explore a political calculus, the mathematical study of continual change. It is about political arithmetic at the end of the day..The city's air is combustible. Any flammable social media post is just enough to get anti-social elements to run riot. At the same speed that the Yeddyurappa-government rushed to get a CC set up, it must find quick ways to strengthen inter-cultural and inter-faith dialogues among the peace-loving leaders so that hate-mongers on either side of the table don't tear apart the fabric of our communities..For demagogues who back rabble-rousing rebels looking for a dangerous cause, it may be surprising that Devarajeevanahalli, the epicenter of the recent rampage, has sprung back to normalcy to become what it is, "a locale of God's life"..(Stephen David is a Bengaluru based senior journalist and author. He specialises in public policy, religion and politics.)
