Pro-Kannada activists ransack a Hindi programme at a Bengaluru hotel on Thursday.
Credit: Video grab
Bengaluru: Forty-one activists of the Kannada Rakshana Vedike (KRV) were arrested on Thursday after they barged into a Hindi programme at a five-star hotel in central Bengaluru and ransacked the premises.
The KRV members stormed the Taj West End Hotel around 10.45 am, raising slogans, tearing up flex posters and smashing furniture on the third and final day of a 'Hindi Saptaha' (Hindi Week) programme organised by the Committee of Parliament on Official Language, which comes under the Minstry of Home Affairs' Department of Official Language.
The protesters decried what they called was the ongoing "imposition" of Hindi over Kannada and other regional languages.
"We had information that MPs from northern states were present at the event and a discussion was being held on how to spread and impose Hindi. Our call is for all languages to have equal rights and status," KRV state organisation secretary Arun Javagal told DH.
The High Grounds police confirmed the arrests.
A police statement said: "On the final day of the meeting, the session commenced at 9 30 am. Between 10.45 am and 11 am, about 30 to 40 members of an organisation illegally entered the venue in protest against the meeting agenda, obstructed the work of government officials present, and created a disturbance. This caused a temporary disruption to the meeting.
"The police immediately arrived at the scene, took the protestors into custody,
and controlled the situation. Consequently, the meeting faced a brief interruption but was completed as per the pre-scheduled programme owing to the timely intervention of the police. A case was registered against the protestors at the High Grounds police
station, and legal action was taken. A total of 41 protestors were arrested and produced before the 1st ACJM Court, which ordered judicial custody of the protestors."