Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has sought a full report into a police operation linked to an incident involving protesters and media personnel in Bengaluru, saying peaceful protest rights cannot be upheld in Delhi while being denied to others in the state capital.
Responding to the previous day’s incident, Shivakumar said peaceful protest was a fundamental right in a democracy. He said he had taken note of the incident involving protesters and members of the media and had asked for a complete report on the circumstances that led to the police action.
The Chief Minister said action would be taken against those responsible if the inquiry found that unnecessary force or excessive conduct had occurred. The statement did not provide details about the nature of the protest, the number of people involved, the location of the incident or the specific actions taken by the police.
Shivakumar said disagreements with the Election Commission, the Karnataka government or him personally must be allowed to be expressed peacefully. He said no one exercising that right should be permitted to have it curtailed.
The comments place the incident within a wider question of how public authorities manage demonstrations in Bengaluru. Police deployments, restrictions on public assembly and responses to protesters directly affect how residents use streets and public spaces, while also determining the conditions under which citizens can raise objections to government decisions.
The Chief Minister contrasted Karnataka’s position with the Congress-led protests and demands for the right to demonstrate in Delhi. He said Karnataka must apply to itself the democratic values that it expects from other parts of the country and that there could be no double standard.
“Peaceful protest is a fundamental right of our democracy,” Shivakumar said in the statement, adding that the state could not advocate the right to protest in Delhi while denying it in Bengaluru. He repeated that there was no room for a two-sided approach.
The statement makes the proposed report the immediate administrative next step. Its findings are expected to establish what led to the police action and whether any use of force or conduct by officials breached the standards referred to by the Chief Minister. The supplied report does not indicate when the report will be submitted or whether any disciplinary process has begun.
