Bengaluru: Massive pro-Ambedkar protest held against District Judge

A protest was held on Saturday in Bengaluru against a district judge in Raichur, who objected to having Dr BR Ambedkar’s portrait put alongside Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait on Republic day. The protest garnered enough steam for Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai to meet the objectors in Freedom Park.

Visuals of the protest showed a mass of people holding blue flags of the Karnataka Dalit Sangharsha as well as some flags from the SDPI. Photographs also showed a sea of people taking up the Maurya Circle flyover as they looked to march towards Vidhana Soudha.

While the current demonstration was preceded by many small scale protests, the judge, Mallikarjun Gowda has only been transferred from his position of Principal District and Sessions of Raichur District to the presiding officer of the Karnataka State Transport Appellate Tribunal and no other action has been taken.

Accepting the protestors memorandum, Bommai promised to convey their demands to the relevant people.

Responding to the criticism, Judge Malikarjuna had claimed that he did not mean any disrespect to Ambedkar and there was false propaganda against him.