Workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by former Bengaluru mayor M Gautham Kumar, staged a protest outside the heavily secured Bangalore International Centre on Tuesday ahead of a scheduled event.
The programme involved a reading from the book Umar Khalid and His World, followed by a discussion featuring several historians and intellectuals. BJP activists gathered at the venue raising slogans and demanding that the event be cancelled. In an attempt to gain entry, some protesters tried to push past police barricades, prompting security personnel to intervene and take them into preventive custody.
The protest came a day after the party formally approached Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh, seeking cancellation of the event, which it described as being organised in support of activist Umar Khalid. A delegation of BJP leaders led by Bengaluru Central MP P C Mohan met the commissioner and submitted a memorandum reiterating the demand.
Khalid is currently in judicial custody in connection with alleged conspiracy charges linked to the 2020 Delhi riots. Earlier in the day, the Karnataka BJP, in a post on X, alleged that while courts continue to hear cases related to anti-national activities, a Congress-backed ecosystem is engaged in glorifying individuals accused of promoting divisive agendas. It questioned why Bengaluru was being turned into a hub for such events, adding, “Is this the ‘cultural contribution’ the Siddaramaiah government wants to promote? Our city is a land of innovators and patriots, not a playground for the ‘Tukde Tukde’ narrative.”
On April 20, the Supreme Court of India dismissed Khalid’s plea seeking a review of an earlier order denying him bail, observing that there were reasonable grounds to believe the allegations against him. The court had previously held that a prima facie case existed against Khalid and co-accused Sharjeel Imam under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, noting that prosecution material pointed to their alleged role in the planning, mobilisation and strategic direction of the violence.
The riots, which erupted in northeast Delhi in February 2020 during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens, left 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.