Evening Pulse: Shivakumar promises 'no double standards' on protest as quota appeal waits on Cabinet

Karnataka's government spent Tuesday evening trying to keep two promises at once: to defend rights it demands for itself in Delhi, and to defend a quota law it did not write. Since this afternoon, Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has stepped in personally on the police handling of Monday's anti-SIR protest. On the High Court's reservation ruling, the government has still not said whether it will appeal, and the BJP has moved its attack from the 2022 law to how the state argued for it. In the sting row, a Bengaluru court has stopped 42 media outlets from circulating videos that former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah says are false.

The police review we flagged this afternoon has gone a level higher. In a post on X, Shivakumar said he had sought a full report on what led to the police action near the Chief Electoral Officer's office, and that any unnecessary force or excess would bring accountability, PTI and Vartha Bharati reported. He linked the episode to his party's own protests in Delhi against the Chief Election Commissioner and said there would be no double standards. Police have said the group gathered without permission, against a High Court direction to use designated sites, and refused to move to Freedom Park. No deadline for the report and no action against officers have been announced.

On the quota, the Cabinet decision we flagged is still pending, and no meeting date has been officially announced in any report we could verify. Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara kept every door open, telling reporters there was an option to appeal while asking aloud what happens to appointments already made under the 56 per cent quota, The South First reported. That is the question students and job seekers most need answered, and the government has not yet answered it.

Fuller accounts of the judgment explain why an appeal is no formality. According to The South First, the bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice K S Hemalekha struck down the provisions that took reservation past 50 per cent. It held that a community's share of the population did not on its own justify crossing the ceiling, and that the state had not shown extraordinary circumstances. It also held that the National Commissions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes had to be consulted before the law was made, and that letters sent afterwards did not count.

The BJP has changed its line of attack. Leaders including Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, former minister B Sriramulu and MP Kota Srinivas Poojary accused the government's lawyers of failing to argue the case properly in the High Court, TV9 Kannada reported. Public TV reported that Narayanaswamy blamed the Congress government's neglect and warned of a statewide agitation. Congress leaders kept pointing at the Centre: Minister K H Muniyappa said the problem would not have arisen had the quota been placed in the Ninth Schedule, according to TV9 Kannada. We found no government reply to the charge about its lawyers.

In the sting row, Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge B Pushpanjali granted Siddaramaiah an ex parte interim injunction on Tuesday, Bar & Bench and LiveLaw reported. It bars 42 media houses and platforms, including Freedom TV Kannada and a YouTube channel, from circulating two videos dated September 27 and October 2 that link him to an alleged honey trap, and directs platforms to block them. LiveLaw reported that the judge cited the right to privacy under Article 21. Siddaramaiah denies the allegations as baseless. The order is interim, and Bar & Bench reported the suit is next posted for November 13.

Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy, the JD(S) state president, raised the stakes. He demanded a CBI investigation into the sting operations and said he would take a complaint to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, ANI and IANS reported. He alleged that four retired police officers had been posted at Shivakumar's Sadashivanagar residence to gather information on ministers, though he told reporters he was not claiming the Chief Minister personally ordered it, IANS reported. ANI reported that he accused Shivakumar of starting the sting operations. These are allegations, none has been verified, and we found no response from the Chief Minister by evening.

Two loops stay open. The INDIA bloc's SIR petition was not listed on Tuesday, and the Chief Justice's bench said such matters would be listed once the defects are cured, PTI reported in a story carried by OrissaPOST. The BJP has still not announced dates for its threatened siege of police stations over Form-7 FIRs.