With just nine months left for the assembly elections, Karnataka—the only prominent state where the Congress is the ruling party—is witnessing an anti-Hindi campaign by pro-Kannada organisations and a section of the Lingayats, the biggest single community in the state, demanding separate religious status.
It has been pointed out that the killing of an RSS worker in Dakshina Kannada district and the subsequent communal disharmony were bound to determine the agendas for the coming assembly elections. The unexpected anti-Hindi campaign and the Lingayat demand for special religious status have come up amidst this context. New agendas are being put forward. The question is: who is behind it?
Will pro-Kannada campaign turn into votes?
The pro-Kannada outfits started their anti-Hindi agitation by demanding the removal of signboards in Hindi from metro trains. When Bengaluru city police commissioner Praveen Sood, who tried to suppress the agitation, was replaced by T. Sunil Kumar, it was alleged that the Siddaramaiah Government was silently favouring the agitation.
The anti-Hindi agitators were emboldened when signboards in Hindi were removed from metro trains. They went on to demand that that signboards of international IT companies should be in Kannada. There is also a demand that non-Kannadigas should not be appointed in banks in Karnataka. Meanwhile, the Kannada Development Authority suggested that all bank employees should learn to read and write Kannada within six months.
Lingayats seek religious status
The Lingayats are the biggest single community in Karnataka, constituting 17 per cent of the state’s total population. B.S. Yeddyurappa, BJP president and former chief minister, is the most prominent leader from the community. It was Yeddyurappa who started his attempts to make Lingayats the vote-banks of the BJP.
In this context, a rally of about half a lakh Lingayats were held on July 18, 2017, in Bidar, demanding separate religious status for the community. The Veerashaiva section of the community has come forward with the stand that Lingayats need not be considered as a separate religion. Thus, the prominent community in Karnataka has been divided, owing to conflicting stances.
The BJP argues that the Veerashaivas are Lingayats and Hindus. The RSS is of the opinion that any follow-up action can be taken only after the mutt heads of the two factions arrive at a consensus and also after setting up a committee to study the issue.
A convention was held in Bengaluru on Thursday, led by A.B. Patil, minister and a member of the Lingayat community, and participated by heads of Mutts, in order to arrive at a stance on the issue. However, the Veerashaiva faction kept off the convention. The chief minister has repeatedly asserted that the government has no secret intentions on this subject.
Resort politics and Income Tax raids
The country’s attention was focused on Karnataka in the past few weeks when the Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat turned into an issue of prestige for both the Congress and the BJP. In all, 44 Congress MLAs from Gujarat were securely housed in a resort at Bidadi, near Bengaluru, in order to escape alleged horse-trading by the BJP. It was this resort drama that ensured the victory of Ahmed Patel, political affairs secretary of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The Income Tax raids conducted at the houses Karnataka Minister for Energy D.K. Sivakumar and his relatives have to be read alongside this. Sivakumar was in charge of taking care of the Gujarat MLAs. The raids were conducted continuously for four days, and unaccounted wealth amounting to Rs 300 crore was reportedly unearthed.
BJP alleged rise in communal clashes
The BJP is gearing up with all its might for the assembly elections, under the leadership of Yeddyurappa. The party alleges that the communal clashes in Dakshina Kannada district were akin to political murders in Kerala and blames Siddaramaiah Government for the situation.
The fearful situation created by the murder of RSS worker Sarat Madiwala and the stabbing of Bajrang Dal worker Chiranjeevi who took part in the funeral procession has been a matter of severe concern for the Karnataka government. According to the BJP, 12 Sangh Parivar workers were killed since February 2015. BJP’s national president Amit Shah will reach Bengaluru on Saturday, in connection with the party’s preparations for the elections.
The Congress is getting ready for the elections by strengthening the party and by embarking upon popular schemes such as the fair-price eateries named Indira Canteen. The KPCC has been re-organised under the leadership of AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal.
One has to wait and see whose strategy fares better.
Switching loyalties
Karnataka became the scene for preventing switching of loyalty by Gujarat MLAs, but does Karnataka itself offer any more possibility to change political loyalty? In March 2017, the BJP gave the first shock treatment to the Congress by bringing senior Congress leader S.M. Krishna to its camp. The Congress received a further jolt when former minister V. Sreenivasa Prasad and former MP H.H. Viswanath joined the BJP.
However, by winning the assembly by-elections held in Nanjengud and Gundalpet in April 2017, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah proved that he is still a force to reckon with.
V. Dhananjay Kumar, former Union minister and confidant of Yeddyurappa, left the BJP and joined the Congress last week. Eight dissident MLAs of the Janata Dal (S) are close to Siddaramaiah. These MLAs had voted for the Congress in the election to four Rajya Sabha seats held in June 2016. The subsequent suspension of these MLAs had led to acrimony in the Janata Dal (S).
In the present situation, it is very unlikely that political leaders elsewhere will join the Congress.
