“Having forced himself inside Parliament and done that act…it is a major mistake. I condemn it. As his father, I condemn it.” This was the reaction of a confused Devaraje Gowda, the father of Manoranjan Gowda, one of the men who intruded into and caused a security breach in India’s Parliament on Wednesday.
Educated in Mysuru, Manoranjan is an engineering student from Mysuru. It has been learnt that along with a fellow native of Karnataka, Sagar Sharma, he stormed into the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors’ gallery and sprayed yellow smoke from a canister. Their entry to the public gallery was based on a pass that showed Mysuru BJP MP Pratap Simha as the signatory. Initial reports suggest that Manoranjan and Sagar had been seeking permission to visit Parliament for over three months and had approached Simha’s office for a pass.
Manoranjan was caught on video releasing yellow smoke from a canister, triggering panic among the Members of Parliament while the winter session proceedings were on. Two others, Anmol Shinde and Neelam, who were found protesting outside the Parliament premises, were also detained by police.
“I have been repeatedly telling the media and now you as well, I know my son is a good boy and has always been truthful and honest. He always spoke of doing something good for society even if it meant making sacrifices. He used to read books written by Swami Vivekananda and other thinkers,” Devaraje Gowda, the father, told News18 over the phone.
“I will support him if he has done any good for society but let him be hanged if he has done something wrong for society,” he added, almost in tears.
Nearly breaking down during this conversation over the phone with News18, the father added that every single person known to the family would vouch for Manoranjan’s good character. Explaining that their family belongs to a farming community who hail from the same constituency as BJP MP Prathap Simha, Devaraje also told the media that as parents, they had given him the best of education.
“He is a BE in engineering. We come from a good family and do not have connections with any organisations or political parties,” he told the media. “We have given him a proper upbringing but had no idea what he would do. What happened today in Parliament, let it be done by anybody, be it my son or any other reason, I vehemently condemn it.”
On a question about what Manoranjan’s occupation was, his father explained that his son would accompany him to his fields where he would help him with his areca nut and coconut plantations.
“One thing I would like to reiterate is that my son always had the feeling that he must serve society. We were forcing him to marry as he was already 34 years of age, but he asked us to wait as he kept saying he wanted to do something to help people, especially the downtrodden. Apart from that, he has no other bad or evil intentions. He did not have any other bad habits like smoking or drinking,” the father told this reporter.
Answering a question on the kind of ideology Manoranjan followed, his father reiterated that he had just one ideology — to serve the community. But, he repeated, what his son has done is highly condemnable.
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