New Delhi: Facing attacks from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over a manifesto promise to take action against the Bajrang Dal if voted to power in Karnataka, Congress leaders appear to be doing damage control.
Senior Congress leader and former Karnataka chief minister M. Veerappa Moily said Wednesday that there was no suggestion before the party to ban the Bajrang Dal if elected to power in the state.
“The Supreme Court’s stand over hate politics is very clear. We had made the statement in our manifesto as a part of it. But we have no intention of banning the Bajrang Dal. KPCC president D.K Shivakumar has made it clear today,” Moily was quoted as saying during a press conference in Udupi. He emphasised that state governments don’t have the right to ban such organisations.
The clarification came amid a concerted attack by the BJP on the Congress over its manifesto, which referred to possible action against organisations including the Bajrang Dal and the already banned Popular Front of India (PFI).
“We believe that law and Constitution is sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities. We will take decisive action as per law including imposing a ban on any such organisations,” said the manifesto, released by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Tuesday.
BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have lashed out at the Congress for allegedly insulting the Hindu god Hanuman and trying to “lock up those who chant ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’”. The Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, takes its name from Bajrang Bali, another name for Lord Hanuman. The BJP has also instructed its workers to chant the Hanuman Chalisa in temples across Karnataka.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Congress president D.K. Shivakumar Thursday visited the Chamundeshwari temple in Mysuru and reportedly announced a special committee to oversee the development of prominent Hanuman temples in the state and another committee to oversee the development of the Anjanadri Hills, believed to be the birthplace of Lord Hanuman.
Several Congress leaders, including Randeep Singh Surjewala and Shivakumar, have tried to draw a differentiating line between Bajrang Bali (Lord Hanuman) and the Bajrang Dal.
Speaking in Mysuru Thursday, Shivakumar reportedly added, “What we have said in the manifesto, see it clearly. Those who disturb peace will face consequences. They (BJP) are trying to fix a narrative, but people will decide on it in the elections. The Congress is not damaged by this. I am also a Hindu and I am a devotee of Ram, Hanuman, and Shiva,”
The manifesto and its mention of the Bajrang Dal have unleashed a new political row in the state less than a week before polling, with ‘Hindutva politics’ widely seen as a particularly significant factor in the coastal districts of Udupi, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada.
Modi’s offensive
The prime minister has used the issue to launch a series of attacks on the Congress. At a rally in Vijayanagara district Tuesday, without mentioning the Bajrang Dal, Modi said, “Earlier the Congress locked up Lord Ram and now they want to lock up those who chant ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’.”
The next day, he chanted “Jai Bajrang Bali” during all three public meetings he addressed across Karnataka, along with a call of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”.
During one rally, he also requested the crowd to show their support by flashing the torch on their phones and said, “Please cast your vote and don’t forget to chant ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’ when you exercise your right to vote.”
In his multiple attacks on the Congress since the release of the manifesto, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has said that any move to ban the organisation would prove costly to the party and that “the Congress party today is in the grip of the SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India) and the PFI, and it cannot get out of it.
The Bajrang Dal’s parent organisation, the Vishva Hindu Parishad Thursday said that the Congress was now realising that it had committed “a sin by defaming the Bajrang Dal” but the people of Karnataka would not forgive it.
Former Karnataka chief minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy also weighed in Thursday. He reportedly said that the Congress was raising the issue now but had done nothing when it was in power in the state.
“All those things are not important. When a Congress government ruled for five years, why did they not ban it then? Why are they raising the issue now? We have to change the culture of those organisations. We have to teach them how to behave in public life. That is important,” Kumaraswamy was quoted as saying.
Also read: Siddaramaiah made Tipu Sultan a hero, BJP reacted to celebration of a tyrant, says Tejasvi Surya