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Prathima Nandakumar
Prathima Nandakumar

KARNATAKA

Hate wave

54-Hate-wave

Communal incidents are on the rise in poll-bound Karnataka’s coastal belt

  • “Hindutva work is not against Muslims and Christians. Our job is to organise the Hindu society and fight divisive practices like casteism and untouchability.” - Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, RSS strongman. He, along with BJP MPs, led a massive march in Bantwal

55-Kalladka-Prabhakar-Bhat Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat | Daya Kukkaje

The arrival of monsoon has brought little respite to coastal Karnataka, as it continues to simmer with communal tension. With Karnataka preparing to go to the polls in early 2018, communal incidents have already claimed two lives in Dakshina Kannada district.

For more than 50 days, prohibitory orders were imposed on Bantwal, Puttur, Belthangady and Sullia taluks in the district. The orders are still in place in Bantwal. However, on July 7, the saffron brigade carried out a massive solidarity march in Bantwal, demanding the arrest of RSS worker Sharath Madivala’s killers. BJP MPs Shobha Karandlaje and Nalin Kumar Kateel, RSS strongman Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat and Karkala MLA V. Sunil Kumar led the march. Madivala, 28, who ran a laundry service, was stabbed by bike-borne men on July 4. He died in a private hospital three days later. The police suspect it to be a “retaliation” for the killing of Social Democratic Party of India [SDPI] leader Mohammed Ashraf Kalai, 35. He was hacked to death by unidentified persons at Benjanapadavu in Bantwal on June 21.

But, the communal cauldron had been heating up since May. On May 26, three Muslim youths were allegedly attacked in Kalladka in Bantwal, which led to a major clash between the two communities on June 13. The situation turned tense after a video clipping of Forest Minister B. Ramanath Rai, who is in charge of the district, asking the superintendent of police to arrest Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat was widely circulated.

Following the July 7 march, at least 1,000 people, including BJP MPs and Bhat, were booked under IPC sections 143 (for unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant). What has angered the saffron brigade is that the police filed cases against its leaders, but didn’t take any action against those who pelted stones at Madivala’s funeral cortège on July 8.

As per the data compiled by the home ministry, Karnataka ranked third on the list of communally sensitive states, witnessing 291 communal incidents that left 19 dead and 865 injured between 2013 and May 2016.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that those involved in communal incidents would be booked under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act and Goonda Act. But Karandlaje said the breakdown of law and order in the district was owing to the Congress’s appeasement of Muslims. “The KFD [Karnataka Forum for Dignity] and PFI [Popular Front of India] that are instigating communal violence should be banned,” she said. In her letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, she has asked for a probe by the National Investigation Agency into all communal incidents and killings in the state.

Bhat, 65, known as ‘Bal Thackeray of Mangaluru’, also blamed the Congress’s brand of vote bank politics for the communal tension. “Muslims should stop playing the victim. Hindutva work is not against Muslims or Christians,” he said. “Our job is to organise the Hindu society and fight divisive practices and evils like casteism and untouchability. Is it a crime to assert our Hindu identity? When you corner Hindus, they are bound to hit back.” He said the violence was not perpetrated by Hindus, and that radical Islamic groups were the reason behind Hindus banding together.

The ‘hindutva laboratory of the south’ is on the boil. But, the emergence of the ‘Hindu identity’ in Dakshina Kannada—with 67.18 per cent Hindus, 24.02 per cent Muslims and 8.2 per cent Christians—was not incidental; it was part of a social engineering experiment by the sangh parivar, said political observers. And, the hindutva movement helped the BJP reap electoral benefits. The first BJP government in south India was formed in Karnataka, in 2008, under the leadership of B.S. Yeddyurappa.

56-Sri-Vishwesha-Tirtha-Swami Food for thought: Sri Vishwesha Tirtha Swami of Pejawar Math organised an iftar koota in Udupi, which received flak from the saffron brigade.

The efforts to establish a common Hindu identity began in 1969 at the Sant Sammelan (conclave of saints) in Udupi. Here, an on-stage embrace between RSS chief M.S. Golwalkar and IAS officer Bharanayya, a dalit who presided over the meet, was dubbed as the ‘hug of the century’ by the media. For the RSS, it was a symbolic gesture to eradicate casteism and untouchability.

K. Phaniraj, a political observer, said the saffron surge in Karnataka, especially in the coastal belt, started in the 1980s with the land reforms. “After Ram Janmabhoomi [movement], the mass participation in hindutva political activities began. In 1992-93, post Babri Masjid demolition, sporadic violence hit Dakshina Kannada. Hindu Jagarana Vedike [affiliated with the sangh parivar] was joined by another Hindu militant group called Bajrang Dal. In 1996, it [saffron surge] started becoming evident, as Surathkal riots [1998] were the first engineered riots by a sangh parivar organisation. Since 2008, the attack on Muslims, in the name of love jihad and cow slaughter, and on Christians, in the name of conversions, continue.”

The land reforms movement liberated the lower castes, especially the Billavas. In the 1990s, post liberalisation, agriculture was no longer viable. The real estate boom, setting up of special economic zones and thermal power plants saw the agricultural land shrink. Small landholders gave up agriculture and took to the service sector. The educated lower caste youth suffered from identity crisis as they were no longer landowners but part of the faceless workforce, and that is where the sangh parivar struck gold. The Billavas and dalit youth, who did not have a social identity, became its foot soldiers. The common hindutva identity gave them the much-needed pride and confidence.

Bajrang Dal’s state convener Sharan Kumar, also known as Sharan Pumpwell, said, “Today, youth from all communities are with us. We have 20,000 registered members in the state. We are projected as bad boys, but our reaction to forced conversion and cow slaughter is not ours alone. It reflects the collective feeling of the Hindu society.”

57-Chaos-in-the-coast

Both Kumar and Bhat said that Muslims consumed beef only to hurt the Hindu religious sentiment. Bhat also dismissed the claims of dalits eating beef. “Dalits never used to slaughter cows for meat, and only ate the carcasses in the past. Today, we cannot allow such a demeaning practice to prevail. We are against people offering leftovers to dalits during weddings or ceremonies. We believe in equality and expect dalits to dine as guests,” he said.

Rajaram Tholpady, professor of political science at Mangalore University, said communal polarisation was now complete. “The Congress chose minority appeasement as a political tool to electorally score over the saffron party. It doled out subsidies to the poor sans empowerment. Also, it tried to keep its significant Hindu vote bank intact by practising soft hindutva,” he said. “The first casualty is law and order. Cow vigilantism, frequent communal clashes in the name of love jihad and moral policing are on the rise.”

Shabbir Ahmed, member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, said the meteoric rise of Muslim outfits like the PFI and the SDPI was also a trigger for the communal divide. “The SDPI has made inroads into the panchayat and urban local bodies, and is providing a political alternative,” he said.

Riyaz Farangipete, state secretary of the SDPI, said the Congress government never took action against sangh parivar elements as they feared it would benefit the BJP politically. “Kalladka is the epicentre of this tension. Bhat is dreaded even by the police,” he said.

In a highly communalised environment, saner voices are few and efforts at fostering social harmony are frowned upon or looked at with suspicion, as in the case of the iftar koota hosted at the ‘Annabrahma’ dining hall attached to the Sri Krishna temple in Udupi on June 24. The iftar was organised by Sri Vishwesha Tirtha Swami, the pontiff of Pejawar Math. Hindu organisations were up in arms against Swami, who was instrumental in bringing the 1969 Sant Sammelan to Udupi. “What is the message Swamiji wants to give gau rakshaks [cow protectors]?” asked Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik, who led a protest against the iftar koota on July 2.

But, a few like Vidya Dinker, a Mangaluru-based social activist, have appreciated the seer’s gesture. “Swamiji has come out as a more secular person, and sadly, secular-minded people attacking the pontiff is self-defeating,” he said.

Phaniraj, however, said it was a well-calculated move of the hindutva brigade. “Whichever way it swings the votes, the BJP is bound to benefit,” he said.

Farangipete welcomed the seer’s move, but said, “We suspect the iftar party was hosted with the consensus of all sangh parivar leaders, as they feel Muslim support will be crucial for the 2019 polls. It was a Muslim Rashtriya Manch [of the RSS] sponsored event.”

The fault lines are only becoming deeper. But, it looks like the political class prefers to keep its blinders on in its race for power.

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