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Brand Bangalore takes a hit again Jaishankar Jayaramiah Bangalore  Bangalore’s image as a peaceful infotech city has taken a severe beating after communal riots rocked the city for three consecutive days last week. While the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party have been blaming each other for the clashes, some politicians, like former minister PGR Sindhia, have criticised the coalition government, led by Janata Dal (Secular), for its failure to check the riots. The citizens of Bangalore, however, blame politicians for the violence, in which a 12-year boy was killed in police firing and several vehicles and shops were set ablaze. Tension gripped East Bangalore after the first wave of violence broke out on January 19 when hundreds of people headed towards a local stadium for a meeting to protest the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The meeting was organised by a new forum, People’s Front, which has been floated by former Union minister and senior Congress leader CK Jaffer Sharief. Many people felt that the police department failed to assess the second wave of violence that broke out after a day on January 21, when Hindu organisations took a procession related to the Virat Hindu Mahasabha programme. The clashes clearly show a total lack of preparedness by the police to handle such a crisis and total lack of intelligence at the local level, say observers. During the recent communal clashes, IT outsourcing firms were unaffected as most of them are located on the other side of the city. Yet these riots have added another sordid chapter to Bangalore’s history, which may making investors think twice before locating new projects in this once-hallowed IT destination. Not just last week, Bangalore, an otherwise peaceful city, has been rocked over the years by communal or linguistic issues. In 1991, a bandh for Cauvery water turned violent with majority locals turning against the Tamil linguistic minority. Then, the city came to a standstill when forest brigand Veerappan kidnapped Kannada superstar late Rajkumar. Again in 2006, Rajkumar’s death sparked off riots, killing eight persons. The increasing frequency of such incidents, coupled with issues related to poor infrastructure (that remain unresolved), could make investors look at other willing states to locate their investments.

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