Parties rally against ban

Parties rally against ban
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: No political party wants to make a commitment that it will not hold rallies in Bangalore’s central business district. But all agree that probably these could be held on a holiday or a Sunday.
Even as the JD(S) recovers from Bangaloreans’ wrath for Monday’s traffic chaos following the party’s rally at Palace Grounds, neither it nor the BJP is in favour of a legislation to ban political rallies in the city.
While KPCC president R V Deshpande and working president D K Shiva Kumar said their party would initiate moves to ensure that either a legislation or some measures are taken by the BJP government to ban rallies in Bangalore, ruling party state unit president D V Sadananda Gowda was not prepared to make any such promise.
Sadananda Gowda said: “It’s easy for opposition parties to make such statements. The Congress was in power for more than 40 years. It never took such an initiative. But I’ll write a letter to the government, urging it not to allot buses for political rallies.’’
The Congress has taken the initiative of holding its public events out of Bangalore. For the takeover of Deshpande and Shiva Kumar to the party’s posts, the rally was held in Doddaballapur. “It should be a conscious decision by all parties that such rallies in Bangalore inconvenience the public. When a party worker can come from 400 km to Bangalore for the party function, he will not mind travelling another 50 km outside the city,’’ Deshpande said.
Non-committal on the issue, Sadananda Gowda said his party will take all care to organize rallies without inconveniencing the public.
State JD(S) president H D Kumaraswamy said during his tenure as CM he had mooted the idea of identifying a designated place outside Bangalore for rallies. After he stepped down, the proposal was not followed up.
While Sadananda Gowda hedged over a legislation to ban political rallies, law minister S Suresh Kumar said: “After Monday’s incident, I will think about bringing one. As political parties, we have no right to put people to hardship. When we cannot solve their problems, why increase them?’’
He said bringing people to the venue, causing chaos and the following day apologizing makes no sense. “It becomes ritualistic. The same party workers are brought to the venue. What are we trying to prove and to whom? Politicians reason that as public memory is short, everything is forgotten,’’ he added.
More reports page 3 QUOTE HANGER
The rules do not allow us to decline requests for contract bookings of BMTC buses. However, fresh guidelines will be set for the future where only minimum number of buses will be allotted for political rallies.
R Ashok, transport minister, BJP
Though rallies are a weapon for political parties to spread ideology and their messages, they should not hold the public to ransom.
D V Sadananda Gowda, state BJP president
In case, political parties decide to hold rallies in cities, they should be held on Sundays or on a public holiday.
Siddaramaiah, former dy CM, Congress