The incident at Jyoti Nivas College (JNC) prompted a flurry of finger-pointing, with the opposition party leaders terming the incident as an intent to provocate, even as he himself was accused of trying to exploit the incident for political gain.
MLA Ramalinga Reddy, who visited the college on Wednesday evening and on Thursday morning said that the incident was an attempt to possibly trigger another incident such as that which transpired at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi.
“It was provocative and only the swift appearance of the police helped defuse the situation,” the former Minister said. It was an assertion denied by several BJP party workers who were at the altercation. “Why would we possibly do such a thing? It is illogical. We all live in or around Koramangala. My own sister attends JNC. There is no reason for us to cause strife at the college,” one said.
Another BJP party member who was present at the incident was Gopinath Reddy, a resident of HSR Layout. He claimed that it would have been impossible for the BJP men to trigger a JNU-like incident. “First of all, there were only five of us. Second, people are using JNU to malign BJP. But who was really responsible for the violence at JNU? Nobody really knows,” he said.
Ramalinga Reddy, whose constituency has the presence of several minority universities, expressed confidence that no such incident would transpire again. “I know that parents may be alarmed, but the situation is totally under control,” he said. However, Reddy's visit triggered a political backlash with home minister Basavaraj Bommai terming Reddy's visit as political in nature. "They (Congress) are trying to politicise the event. Let them lodge a complaint and we will have the same examined,"
Meantime, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said that local police would look into the matter. “An inquiry will be conducted,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of the logo launch of the Bengaluru International Film Festival.
Students who were involved in Wednesday’s altercation with the BJP men, said they are anxious to file suo moto cases against the men. However, Isha Pant, DCP (South East) clarified that the police will not be taking suo motu action as there is nothing cognizable.
“If the college files a complaint, we will take up a case,” she said.
