Dakshina Kannada: On 2 May, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) divisional secretary Sharan Kumar sat watching television in his office near the Kadri Manjunath Temple in Mangaluru, Karnataka. It was a little after 11 am. The news flashed that the Congress had reportedly promised to ban organisations such as the Bajrang Dal — VHP’s youth wing — and the outlawed Popular Front of India if it came to power.
The parties in the state were in the last leg of campaigning for the 10 May election, and until that time, Bajrang Dal’s activities had remained muted because of the polls.
The newscast had barely ended when Kumar’s phone began ringing off the hook — people from across the state wanted to know the organisation’s next course of action. Kumar, better known as Sharan Pumpwell, promised them all a plan.
“Even those (Bajrang Dal) workers who were inactive, became active. There was a sort of josh (energy),” he told ThePrint, his eyes lighting up.
Election campaigning in Karnataka is reaching its crescendo, and according to Pumpwell, in coastal Karnataka — where Hindutva, rather than caste, is a significant poll-platform — the Congress’s announcement spurred the Bajrang Dal into action.
“We know that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win in coastal Karnataka but this news added force,” he said, raising his fists to indicate renewed vigour. “We got posters printed and started sticking it on the walls of homes in Mangaluru. Our workers went door-to-door and asked people not to vote for the Congress.”
Since the announcement, the outfit, which is part of over three-dozen organisations that come under the Sangh Parivar, has eagerly jumped into election campaigning. With days to go before the 10 May vote, workers from the Hindutva outfit are going around various areas in Dakshina Kannada to stick up posters.
The poster with the face of ‘Ugra Anjaneya’, or ‘angry Hanuman’ that has now become synonymous with the Hindutva outfit, reads: “Namma Mane Hindu Mane. Dharma Rakshisuva Bajarang Dalavannu nishedamadalu horata Congressigarige matha kelalu praveshvilla (our home is a Hindu Home. There is no entry for those seeking votes for the Congress that is trying to ban Bajrang Dal which is trying to safeguard religion)”.
The organisation has printed over 50,000 such posters. In addition, workers have also changed their WhatsApp display photos to either that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the Hindu god Hanuman, said Pumpwell.
On its part, the Congress has already clarified that there was no proposal to ban the organisations, adding that they were committed to acting against them. Speaking to ThePrint, Veerappa Moily, a veteran Congress leader and former Karnataka chief minister, said that the proposed ban “is not a promise”.
“We are concerned about the hate politics generated by some of the institutions like these. We have to take serious note of such actions. That doesn’t mean that we are going to ban them,” he said, adding that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the ruling BJP, had faced a ban in the aftermath of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.
The VHP and Bajrang Dal weren’t the only ones taken by surprise by the Congress’s “announcement”. A local Congress leader ThePrint spoke to said they learnt that the party was considering such an action from news channels.
“All of us found out about the ban in the manifesto only when it came in the news. We hadn’t even read the draft as we were busy campaigning,” a state Congress leader privy to the development told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
But even VHP leaders like Pumpwell think no state leader would venture into such controversial topics. The input “may have been from Delhi”, he told ThePrint.
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Advantage Congress?
Coastal districts like Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada are considered BJP strongholds. In 2018, the party, then the opposition, kicked off its assembly election campaign here by accusing the Siddaramaiah-led government of being “anti-Hindu” and claiming that 23 right-wing workers were brutally murdered by “jihadis”. The pitch worked — the BJP won 16 out of the total 19 seats in the three districts.
It’s significant to note that in the region, both the BJP and Congress have been accused of patronising groups they see as crucial to their respective vote banks.
According to media reports, between 2013 and 2018, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government ordered 176 cases against the PFI and its political wing, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). Although the BJP had objected to it, last October, the Basavaraj Bommai-led government passed a cabinet decision acquitting 341 people accused in 34 cases, including hate speech, communal disturbances, and farmer protests.
However, despite the BJP’s grip over the region, various factors such as anti-incumbency and charges of corruption against the ruling BJP were seen as giving the Congress a chance.
In addition, the last few years have seen the region being more and more polarised, with issues such as hijab and halal meat driving a sharp wedge between the Hindu and Muslim population in the areas. There has also been a sharp rise in attacks on both Hindus and Muslims over the past few years.
On 21 July, Masood, a 19-year-old Muslim migrant labourer, in Bellare town, 80 km from Mangaluru, died two days after he was attacked by a group of unidentified people. The incident sparked a row of revenge killings, all within eight days.
On 26 July, Praveen Nettaru, a prominent face of the ruling BJP’s youth wing — the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) — and a local businessman who lived around 8 km away from Masood’s house, was hacked to death in Bellare by two bike-borne assailants.
Within 48 hours of Nettaru’s murder, a 23-year-old man,Mahammad Fazil, working at an oil refinery firm, was hacked to death by four unidentified assailants.
Nettaru’s murder, coupled with the killing of Bajrang Dal worker Harsha Jingade in Shivamogga in February, sparked anger among the region’s Hindutva outfits. Soon after his killing, a group of protesters waylaid the car of BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel, who had come to pay his respects, and heckled him.
This was followed by a wave of resignations from the BJYM, adding to the BJP’s troubles.
Pramod Muthalik, the controversial chief of fringe group, Sri Rama Sena, accused the BJP of having let the state’s pro-Hindutva groups down. Muthalik is contesting the election from Udupi’s Karkala as an independent candidate against the minister for energy, Kannada and culture and sitting BJP MLA V. Sunil Kumar.
Also in the fray is Congress candidate Muniyal Uday Kumar Shetty.
“They (BJP) use Bajrang Dal, Hindu Jagarana Vedike, Sri Rama Sena and then just forget about them. This is wrong,” Muthalik told ThePrint while campaigning.
However, until the release of the Congress’s manifesto, this anger against the BJP was seen as being an advantage to the former. But the development has now added to the Congress’s anxiety of losing more ground in the last leg of the elections, sources in the Congress told ThePrint.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)