BJP ex-MLA claims barred from RSS museum for ‘being SC’: Siddaramaiah hits out, Sangh says ‘baseless’

In an audio clip, Goolihatti Shekar alleged that he was denied entry in Napur's Hedgewar memorial since he is a Dalit. BJP had denied him poll ticket this year.

Goolihatti Shekhar had quit BJP after he was denied ticket in this year's Karnataka election | Pic credit: Facebook/Goolihatti D Shekhar Fans

Bengaluru: The ruling Congress party and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have locked horns in Karnataka over the alleged ‘mistreatment’ of a Scheduled Caste (SC) legislator while on visit to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters earlier this year. 

This was after a voice recording of Goolihatti Shekar, who quit the BJP after being denied a poll ticket in the Karnataka election, sent to BJP national general secretary (organisation) B.L.Santosh is doing the rounds and being played on loop on Kannada TV news channels. 

The alleged incident is said to have taken place around January when Shekar was denied entry to the Keshav Baliram Hedgewar museum at the Sangh headquarters in Nagpur for “being an SC”. Shekar comes from the Vadda community, classified as SC in Karnataka. 

In a press statement, the RSS denied Shekar’s charge, saying that there is no system of allowing visitors into the Sangh office after registering their names. “Hence, this allegation is baseless and without merit. Be it any premises of the RSS or in memorials like this, everyone has unrestricted access … .The question of denial of entry to anyone has never risen,” RSS Dakshin Madhya Kshetra Karyavah N. Tippeswamy said in the release.

“Shri Goolihatti Shekhar who claims that this incident took place four months before the assembly elections has met many Sangh leaders since then but nowhere did he raise the issue of this so-called humiliation. It is surprising that such an allegation is made after ten months,” it added.

ThePrint reached out to Shekar via phone and this report will be updated as and when he responds. 

In a long post on X, formerly Twitter, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah led his party’s attack on the RSS, the ideological patron of the BJP, by slamming its discriminatory culture against oppressed classes. 

“Both the BJP and the RSS Parivar, while openly opposing Muslims, also covertly discriminate against Shudras and Dalits. The leaders of the Sangh Parivar, who always chant the mantra ‘We are all Hindus’, actually try to socially marginalise Shudra and Dalit communities

Leaders from the Dalit community, like Goolihatti Shekhar, can only truly find safeguarding in the principles of Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Constitution, rather than in the ideologies of Savarkar and Golwalkar from the Sangh Parivar…,” he tweeted.

The CM also hoped that Shekhar learned from his experience after the episode. 

Siddaramaiah further questioned why no one from oppressed communities were never able to rise up the Sangh ranks and insisted that a Dalit be appointed to the post of RSS chief else its “leaders should stop deceiving people by lying that ‘Hindus are one’.”

Shudras and Dalits are effectively barred from the inner circles of the RSS. A revealing WhatsApp voice recording sent by the ex-BJP MLA Goolihatti Shekhar to B L Santosh shows this reality.

Both the BJP and the RSS Parivar, while openly opposing Muslims, also covertly… pic.twitter.com/yhnqLuZQEM

— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) December 6, 2023

Shekar, meanwhile, asserted that he respected the Sangh and its activities. “Just because I am not in the party, does not mean I do not respect them (RSS). They are all about service to the country, safeguarding the religion. I am not talking personally about anyone. When I went there (RSS HQ, entering the office was no problem and since I do not know what else was there, someone took me to the museum and I faced this problem. I only shared it, that’s all,” Shekar told a Kannada news channel on Wednesday evening. 

BJP defends Sangh

Several BJP leaders, especially from oppressed communities, have come in Sangh’s defence and questioned the motives behind Shekar’s claims nearly 10 months since the alleged incident. 

“There is no need for any clarification. We don’t know his mental state. He says one thing while in the BJP and another when he leaves. The RSS aim is to create a division less and casteless society. Inside the RSS, no one knows each other’s caste,” former deputy CM Govind Karjol  told reporters Wednesday.  

After winning as an Independent in 2008, Karjol was among the first MLAs to throw his weight behind B.S.Yediyurappa and help form the first government of the BJP in southern India. 

In September 2021, Shekar’s teary-eyed speech in the Karnataka assembly of how his mother was among 20,000 people forcefully converted to Christianity became the catalyst for the anti-conversion law — The Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, 2022 — under the BJP government. 

But, a survey to determine the “extent of conversion” proved that there was no conversion. In December 2021, the BJP government transferred Hosadurga tehsildar Y. Thippeswamy who had filed a report stating that there were no instances of forced conversions. 

Despite a Cabinet nod, the Siddaramaiah government decided against tabling a bill in July for repealing the controversial anti-conversion law after considering the 2024 general election.

(Edited by Tony Rai)