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Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, R Ashoka, has written a letter to the Assembly Speaker, JCD Prabhakar, alleging discrimination in the telecasting and coverage of Assembly proceedings.
In his letter on August 20, Ashoka stated that the monsoon session has been underway since August 13, but statements, photos and videos of the Leader of Opposition and opposition MLAs are not being released during the Assembly proceedings, according to a release. Due to this, photos and videos of opposition members are not being published in the print and TV media, while all statements, photos and videos of the Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Ministers and ruling party MLAs are being released, he alleged. Ashoka claimed that such kind of discrimination in the Assembly proceedings had not happened before, the release said. Therefore, he requested the Speaker to immediately instruct the concerned Department of Information officials to rectify the alleged discrimination. He warned that, failing to do so, a breach of privilege motion would be moved against the concerned officials. The Karnataka Monsoon Assembly Session began on August 13 and has had a stormy run as the opposition has been demanding the resignation of Minister B Nagendra in the alleged multi-crore Karnataka Dalit Valmiki Corporation scam. Earlier, R Ashoka announced an indefinite day-and-night dharna (protest) inside the assembly, stating that it will end after Nagendra resigns. Ashoka accused the Congress government of shielding Nagendra, who he alleged "looted" Rs 180 crores from Dalits. "From last week, we have been in the dharna. We are protesting in the Assembly, but there is no response from the Congress. They are protecting Nagendra, who looted 180 crores Dalit amount. So we demand that amount go to Dalits. That is our demand. That's why today I decided... We decided on a day-and-night dharna. From now onwards, from this minute, we start the dharna, day-and-night dharna in the Assembly, till the resignation of Nagendra," Ashoka stated. The development comes as BJP leaders tried to enter the state legislature over Nagendra's resignation demand. They were met with a heavy police presence that blocked their path, and several were detained. During the standoff, Karnataka BJP State President BY Vijayendra launched a scathing attack on the Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, accusing the state government of misusing the police force to crush democratic dissent and asserting that the ruling dispensation's "cup of sins is overflowing." As it happened, Karnataka Congress workers staged a counter-protest, alleging that it was the BJP which was involved in corruption, not the state government. Congress workers wore face masks of prominent Karnataka BJP and JD(S) leaders during the protest. (ANI)
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