The Hindu : Karnataka News : Vedike to protest against attack on lecturer

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 17, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Vedike to protest against attack on lecturer

By Our Special Correspondent

SHIMOGA Feb. 16. The Himsa Virodhi Nagarikara Vedike has decided to hold the demonstration throughout the State on Thursday to protest against the attack on the lecturer V.S. Sridhar of Vijaya College in Bangalore.

The protesters urged the police to desist from taking revenge against naxalites and also urged the naxalites not to resort to violence.

They demanded the cancellation of the plan to develop Kudremukh National Park in Chikmagalur district considering that it would displace tribal people.

K.L. Ashok, Komu Souharda Vedike convenor, told presspersons here on Wednesday that it is disturbing to note that a progressive thinker like Mr. Sridhar was attacked, allegedly by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarti Parishad (ABVP) activists, when he was taking a class.

He said the inconsistent stand taken by the Government on the naxalite issue was responsible for the encounter at Menasinahadya in Koppa taluk of Chikmagalur district in which two naxalites were killed and the subsequent naxalite attack on the police camp in Pavagada taluk.

Mr. Ashok said the recent naxalite-related developments had relegated to the background the serious problems of the tribal people in the Kudremukh National Park.

K.P. Sripal, vedike secretary, took exception to the reported demand made by D.H. Shankaramurthy, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, and the ABVP leader, P.V. Krishna Bhat, that the vedike and the Civil Liberties Forum be banned in the light of the naxalite activities.

He said those who represented forces that perpetrated communal violence in Gujarat and the saffronisation of Bababudanagiri in Chikmagalur district had no moral right to talk about communal harmony and peace.

Sarjashankar Huralimath of the Komu Souharda Vedike said that the attack on Mr. Sridhar should be condemned by all right-thinking people.

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