Sri Ram Sene mounts pressure, Bommai vows to implement loudspeaker rule ‘cordially’

He also held a meeting with Home Minister Araga Jnanendra and DGP Praveen Sood against the backdrop of the Hindutva campaign. Reports from Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mandya, Belgaum, Dharwad and Kalaburagi said Sene activists played devotional hymns at 5 am, and many were detained.

Sene chief Pramod Muthalik played Hanuman Chalisa and other devotional hymns in Mysuru. He said, “It is not a symbolic protest or will be just for a day. This will continue till the government initiates action against loudspeakers which are installed at mosques.”

Speaking to reporters at a temple, Pramod said, “We have launched the campaign against the state government and the Muslim community, which is not following the Supreme Court order. In future days, we will file a contempt case against all the deputy commissioners for failing to implement the Supreme Court’s order.”

Bommai said the onus of implementing the order lay with police officers of the rank of DySP. “The order specifies details on various aspects like whether the loudspeakers are used all through the year and on the need to obtain clearance for this. Suitable guidelines will be issued to enforce the order,” he said.

“No one should take the law into their hands while implementing the order. Everyone should obey the order. It would resolve all the issues. It is being followed in many states, including Uttar Pradesh,” the chief minister said.

Following in the footsteps of MNS chief Raj Thackeray in Maharashtra, Muthalik had called for playing Hanuman Chalisa and suprabhata through loudspeakers in Karnataka temples from Monday and warned that he would intensify the campaign if the BJP government failed to “rein in mosque managements”.