Karnataka/Report : Street named after Gaza!

Kerala, which has earned the notoriety of sending the maximum number of youths to the dreaded terrorist organisation ISIS, has created yet another controversy.

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Jun 26, 2017, 03:25 pm IST

A road in Kasaragod which is neighbouring Karnataka from where highest number of Jihadis joined the ISIS, was named after Gaza!

Kerala, which has earned the notoriety of sending the maximum number of youths to the dreaded terrorist organisation ISIS, has created yet another controversy.
Recently, a road in Thuruthi in Kasaragod district (which is neighbouring Karnataka) was named as ‘Gaza Street’. The road has been rechristened to provide support to the fight going on in the Gaza strip in Palestine. Surprisingly, the road renaming programme was flagged off by the Kasaragod District Panchayat president AGC Basheer. Sources said that the road was in a bad condition earlier, but this road, is adjacent to Thuruthi Juma Masjid, was concretised with a huge sum to give a new look before the renaming programme.
Local BJP leaders claimed that it was a deliberate attempt by the local Muslim leaders to rename certain roads in Kasaragod. The leader of opposition in Kasaragod Municipality, P Ramesh wondered how the Municipality can go ahead and rename the road even without bringing the matter for debate in the municipality meetings. “Communal tensions were reported as one of the Karyakartas of a Hindu organisation was stabbed and seriously injured. Pakistan Zindabad and other anti-National slogans were raised,” said Rajesh Padmar, co-ordinator of Vishwa Samvad Kendra-Karnataka while speaking to Organiser.
Another reason of worry is that the Gaza road is close to Padane from where the majority of the 21 youths from Kerala had joined ISIS. Now, the IB is closely monitoring the developments in the area as inroads are being made by organisations like the ISIS. The news has also sent shockwaves in the bordering Karnataka. The areas in Karnataka close to Kerala border too have reports of growing sympathisers for Muslim radicals and the security agencies are assessing if there are any such elements in Karnataka too who are sympathising with the cause.

Big Setback for Congress

The Siddaramaiah government received a big setback on June 15, when it lost the no-confidence motion it had moved against Legislative Council Chairman DH Shankarmurthy Shri Shankarmurthy is a BJP MLC and one of the most respected leaders cutting across the party lines. In fact, the Siddaramaiah Government got a tight slap on its face when it tried to attempt something which was not done in 135-year history. In fact, it was a major
embarrassment for the ruling Congress in Karnataka.
Council Deputy Chairman Marithibbe Gowda of the Janata
Dal-Secular put the motion to vote in the 75-member council, where the Congress has 33 members, BJP 23, JD-S 13, and the Independents are five. The BJP members include the Council Chairman.
In fact, even the Congress legislators admit that Shankaramurthy was one of the best Chairmen to have ever occupied the special post. However, just because the Congress wanted
to oust a BJP man, they moved against him.
Stating that it was his privilege to work as Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Council, he claimed he had functioned in a non-partisan and responsible manner. Pointing out that his tenure as the Chairman has been an “open book”, Shankaramurthy reminded the members, “You have seen my work, vote according to your conscience.” Shankaramurthy on his part said that all the allegations made against him were “totally baseless, irresponsible and irrelevant”.
BJP’s K S Eshwarappa, who is the leader of opposition in the Council, called the no-confidence motion an attempt by Congress to seize the Chairman’s post through “cunning politics.” He said JDS’ support in this trust vote is a step towards creating Congress-free Karnataka and the party high command will take “suitable decisions” in the days to come.
Despite Congress making its best efforts to get support of JD(S) (its alliance partner in Bengaluru’s Civic Municipality) and even the Karnataka state unit Congress president and Home Minister G Parameshwara meeting JD(S) supremo and former PM HD Deve Gowda to convince their vote, it failed miserably.
–Guruprasad R, Bengaluru