In a crude show of political might, labour minister B N Bacche Gowda and his gunman physically assaulted a family which dared to overtake the minister’s vehicle. When Bharat (the driver of the vehicle) questioned if he had committed any crime by overtaking the minister’s vehicle, Gowda allegedly stepped out of his car and physically assaulted Bharat. When Bharat’s father tried to intervene, he too was delivered blows by the minister. Not satisfied with his show of strength, Gowda later lodged a complaint with Nelamangala rural police station.
Reacting to the incident, chief minister B S Yeddyurappa apologized to the family and issued a warning to his minister. “I will speak to Bacche Gowda and see to it that the complaint is withdrawn within 24 hours,” he said.
For the full story in the TOI, click here.
An eveninger quoted Gowda defending his hitting Bharath and filing a complaint. “He was not even aware I am a Minister. How can he overtake my car,’’ he was quoted in the paper.
For the full New Indian Express report, click here.
I can't understand why the CM is apologising. He should instead be sacking the minster, and ordering the police to register a case against the him and his henchmen and pursuing it to its logical conclusion of seeing them all behind the bars for a couple of months atleast.
Muralidhar Rao
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What's the rule?
Deepak Rajanna
of course, there can't be any
Motorcade is different, and it is for VVIP's, like Governor, and perhaps the CM. There the roads are cleared by the police, and there's no question of overtaking. Here, it's not a motorcade of any sort, and such privileges are not warranted, and the protocol wouldn't allow it either.
But if protocol was
But if protocol was infringed why take law into your hands? Note down his vehicle number take a photograph & lodge a police complaint. I can understand why Maoists hate these people. The minister should realize they do not own the common good, they only help us keep it common and good.
Arrogant Behavior of a Minister
The people of Bangalore definitely would consider the labor minister B N Bacche Gowda’s behavior as nothing but arrogant going beyond his brief. Real estate businessman Bharat being the victim suggests that there could have been some previous animosity, between them. The people in the businesses of Real estate and politics are both notorious of sorts for their high handedness.
It would look more logical to any body, that, it is Bharat who should have registered a police complaint against the minister!
What is more curious is the Chief Ministers meek reaction to the Gouda (as in the earlier case of the Reddys).
Inquiry ordered
Karnataka DGP Ajai Kumar Singh said on Wednesday that he would order an inquiry into the road rage incident involving minister B N Bacche Gowda. Asked on what basis Bharat was booked, the DGP said he learnt about the incident through reports and would probe the matter. He admitted that there was no law-enforcing authority on the spot when the incident took place. Singh said cases cannot be booked using influence by any person, including elected representatives. “Nobody is above law.”
For the full report in the TOI, click here
Normally, these reports are never made public. And, after the media interest has died down, things will get back to normal, leaving the minister (and the likes of him) to continue in his arrogant ways. Perhaps a remedy may lie in making the report public, possibly through an RTI exercise a few months down the line.
The over reactions, my two take aways from this
I read all the reports, and frankly, it happens to be a regular incident of road rage which is getting undue publicity because a minister is involved. Minister ran into a rash driver, probably thought that he can lecture him as an elder statesman. As it usually happens, rash drivers never admit to being rash, rarely say even a simple sorry, and use aggression as their defence. Minister too got excited, so did the driver.
But what worries me more post the incident is
Waiting to watch if anything will happen on above two counts. If the minister isn't really a thug as few of his friends, I sincerely hope that he draws inspiration from this incident and pushes for creation of a "state highway patrol" entity to manage what are fast becoming our death traps. Had talked of state highway patrol earlier.