Pro-Kannada activist issues warning

Key Highlights Pro-Kannada activists warn Marwari community The warning comes amid simmering tensions over the usage of Hindi in the state Six activists were last week arrested for vandalising banners in Hindi at a Jain community event

Bengaluru: Trouble is brewing in Karnataka, with activists of the Kannada Rakshana Vedike group issuing a threat to the Marwari community. Members of the Marwari community have been warned that they will be driven out of the city for challenging them. The threat has been issued in a video that has now gone viral.

The development came in the wake of six activists belonging to several pro-Kannada outfits being arrested by the Bengaluru Police on Sunday.

The police had arrested the activists over a protest held earlier on Friday outside a Jain community prayer hall located near Infantry Road in the state capital. The protest outside Ganesh Bagh was held to demonstrate against hoardings and banners which carried the message in Hindi and not Kannada.

The police action came as the activists had vandalised the banners and hoardings. Pro-Kannada activists, who had recorded the act, later uploaded the video on social media and shared it via WhatsApp.

Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya had slammed the Kannada activists, tweeting: "Deeply hurt over the attack on our Jain brothers in B'luru over Hindi on a banner of a temple by few rowdy elements. They, however, never question the use of Urdu in Bengaluru. Assaulting peaceful Jains who contribute to Karnataka brings infamy to genuine Kannada lovers & activists."

Today, a video surfaced in which pro-Kannada activists can be seen threatening the Marwaris.

“We will shut down the state. Is Bengaluru your father's property? Bengaluru belongs to Kannadigas. If you can stop one road in our city, we will push you from Avenue Road to Chickpet and see what happens,” one of the activists seen in the video can be heard saying in a threatening tone.

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“We will ask the railway minister to tie you to a train and send you to your state, beware. People like you who come here without a ticket, have crores worth of property and overrule us. If we ask you to use our language, will you file FIR against us, protest in front of Town Hall, shut the city?” he goes on to say.

“Shut the city for one day if you can. You are challenging Kannadigas. We will see who wins - you or us! The people of Karnataka are aware, we will take this protest to every corner of the city. We started the protest against banks and we will have to take up this protest against the Marwari community,” the man in the video warns in the local language.