Police summon Hampana for Modi remark

The Mandya police have summoned and questioned author Hampa Nagarajaiah, 86, popularly often called Hampana, over the essential remarks he made about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dealing with of the farmers’ protests. The police had been performing on a grievance lodged by an RSS activist.

A gaggle of writers and retired judges have issued an announcement calling this ‘an attack on freedom of expression’, even because the Congress has demanded that Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa apologise to the scholar. Dr. Nagarajaiah, inaugurating the Taluk Sahitya Sammelana in Mandya on January 17, had criticised the PM on the dealing with of the farmers’ protest on the Delhi border.

RSS activist Ravi lodged a grievance in opposition to the author at Mandya West Police Station, prompting the police to summon Dr. Nagarajaiah to Mandya. “In no way was my statement derogatory. As a citizen of this country, I do have a right to be critical of the government and that is no crime. At this age, the police insisted I go to Mandya and face the inquiry over frivolous charges and that has pained me. This is an attack on freedom of expression,” Dr. Nagarajaiah stated. His daughter H.N. Arati stated the household had additionally obtained a couple of uncivil calls objecting her father’s assertion.

Venkatesh, sub-inspector, Mandya West Police, refused to reveal particulars. “Whenever there is a petition against someone, it is our duty to seek their explanation, which we have done. We have booked no case against the writer,” he instructed The Hindu.

A gaggle of residents – writers together with Baragur Ramachandrappa, G. Ramakirshna, Raghunandana and retired jurists V. Gopala Gowda, Nagamohan Das and A. J. Sadashiva – have written an open letter criticising the police transfer.

KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar stated it was shameful that the BJP had tried to stifle the voice of a reputed scholar and thinker, simply because he was essential of the Centre. “This is not just about Hampa Nagarajaiah, it is an insult to Kannada literature and writers,” he stated.

T.A. Narayana Gowda, president, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, stated in an announcement, “Karnataka boasts of a glorious tradition of writers as public intellectuals, who have spoken on behalf of the people whichever be the government. Any attack on this tradition is an attack on the constitution and democracy.”

Action regretted

Meanwhile, Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar and Parashurama K., Superintendent of Police, Mandya, are learnt to have known as the scholar and regretted the police motion.

“The Minister and the SP said police at the lower rung had acted in haste and they regretted it,” Dr. Nagarajaiah stated.