Police Deployed in Karnataka's Udupi To Protect ‘Jai Hindu Rashtra’ Banner

At least eight police officials were deployed at the location of the banner after a complaint raised by the SDPI.

Image used for representational purposes only.

(Photo: PTI)

Security has been tightened around a banner that has been put up at a prominent location in Karnataka’s Udupi district, it displays a picture of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Subhash Chandra Bose with the words 'Jai Hindu Rashtra,' reported The News Minute on Tuesday, 16 August.

The banner was also printed with a phrase in Kannada meaning “freedom was not alms given by the British for non-violence.”

The banner further read, “On this 75th Independence day, let us remember the revolutionary leaders Veer Savarkar and Subhash Chandra Bose who defeated the British with a revolutionary struggle and freed the country from their misrule.”

The Udupi Town Municipality on Monday, 15 August, deployed at least eight police officials at the location of the banner near Brahmagiri circle after a complaint was raised by the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).

'No Restrictions on Putting Up the Banner': Municipality

A police official told The News Minute that the police will remain at the location of the banner for the next 15 days as requested by the municipality.

According to the banner, it was installed by Pramod Ucchila, Shailesh Devadiga, and Yogeesh Kuthpady. Pramod reportedly belongs to the right-wing organisation, Hindu Mahasabha, in Udupi.

Despite SDPI’s complaint, the municipality decided to keep the banner and requested the police to protect it.

According to news agency PTI, the Popular Front of India (PFI) had given a memorandum to the police to remove the banner from the circle.

Municipality Commissioner Uday Kumar Shetty said, "There are no restrictions over putting up the banner and the applicants sought permission to put it up three days in advance."

The development comes a day after a clash in the neighbouring Shivamogga district on Monday over Independence Day posters put up in the town.

Four SDPI workers were arrested on Monday for allegedly stabbing a man named Prem Singh during a clash over a poster of Savarkar put up at the Ameer Ahmed Circle in Shivamogga.

In Dakshina Kannada district, SDPI members were booked for disrupting a government event that displayed posters of Savarkar.

(With inputs from The News Minute and PTI.)