Bengaluru lake statue: Activists allege threats from right wing workers

Environmentalists and civil society leaders in Bengaluru have accused police and municipality officials of ignoring threats against them from right-wing groups, for approaching the Karnataka High Court to prevent the ‘development’ of Begur Lake in the city.

A few years ago the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had constructed an artificial island in the lake and installed a statue of Shiva on it to attract visitors.

The Environmental Support Group (ESG), an NGO, took the issue to court, saying the construction violated laws such as the Karnataka Tank Development and Conservation Authority Act. In its judgments in 2019 as well as in 2021, the HC directed the BBMP “not to carry on any work of building islands within the lake area”, adding that the “object of making an island cannot be to install an idol therein”.

Following the order, the municipality covered the statue with tarpaulin. Last week several men claiming allegiance to Hindutva groups unveiled the statue and allegedly made communal statements against leading environmentalist Leo Saldanha, a member of ESG, on social media. Saffron flags were also hoisted on the island in violation of the HC order.

CIVIC Bangalore, Citizens for Bengaluru, and Campaign Against Hate Speech, along with scores of citizens, then issued a statement saying: “Various communal statements were also made against the petitioners, in particular Leo Saldanha. This was followed by more videos by others, and posters were also circulated in which serious threats were issued against anyone who came in the way of the Hindutva project.

“All this has happened under the direct gaze of the local police, BBMP officials and other officials.”

Responding to the developments, the court on Wednesday directed that “status quo ante” be restored. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice M Nagaprasanna said the “practice of defying the order of the court in this fashion has to be deprecated”.

“The issue involves the creation of artificial islands and installing statues by the BBMP. There is no religious issue involved in this group of petitions,” the court said.

The Hindu newspaper quoted BBMP officials as saying that no decision had yet been taken on action against the those who had removed the tarpaulin.

“We only got to know that it had been removed following the videos on social media. We are following the court’s directions and have stopped all work on the lake,” an official said.