Bengaluru: Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde has done it again. The BJP leader from Karnataka has a reputation of being unabashedly Islamophobic and misogynistic and his diatribe against Congress president Rahul Gandhi, where he called him a “hybrid born to a Muslim and a Christian”, is just the latest in a long list of crass remarks.
Hegde’s comments came at a public meeting in his Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha constituency Sunday when he hit out at Congress leaders who he claimed were questioning the authenticity of the Balakot air strikes.
“Now they (Congress) want proof of our air strikes against Pakistan conducted by the Indian Air Force? How did the son of a Muslim become a Brahmin named Gandhi?” Hegde questioned. “What proof do they have? He was born to a Muslim father and Christian mother. How does he become a Brahmin?”
The remarks elicited a strong response from the Congress, with the party’s Karnataka chief Dinesh Gundu Rao tweeting, from his official handle, that Hegde continuing unabated shows that he “has the blessings of @narendramodi and @AmitShah to indulge in such uncouth behaviour”.
And Rao should know. In January, Rao was at the receiving end of Hegde’s remarks over a Twitter spat that began when the union minister made communal remarks in Coorg district.
Hegde dragged Rao’s interfaith marriage into the controversy, prompting the Congress leader’s wife, Tabu Rao, who is a Muslim, to respond that she was more Indian than Hegde was.
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A repeat offender
Hegde, the Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, has made several controversial remarks since being vaulted into national politics.
Hegde’s controversy with Rao began after he, speaking at a rally in Madikeri in the state’s Coorg district in January, said that any hand that touches a Hindu girl should be cut.
“We should keenly observe what’s happening around us,” the minister said. “Regardless of caste and religion, a hand that touches a Hindu girl should not exist.”
In response, Gundu Rao questioned Hegde’s “contributions to Karnataka’s development”, given that he is a union minister.
Hegde countered by dragging Rao’s wife into the row.
“I shall definitely answer this guy Dinesh Gundu Rao’s queries, before which could he please reveal himself as to who he is along with his achievements?” Hegde tweeted. “I only know him as a guy who ran behind a Muslim lady.”
An offended Tabu hit back with a Facebook post, saying BJP leaders should “challenge my husband politically instead of hiding behind a housewife’s saree and throwing stones”.
It appears I am a soft target for certain BJP leaders who are unable to politically take on my husband, Mr Dinesh Gundu…
Tabu Rao यांनी वर पोस्ट केले रविवार, २७ जानेवारी, २०१९
Hegde’s Islamophobia has extended even to the Taj Mahal. The minister was caught on camera saying the monument was originally a Shiva mandir built by King Paramatheertha and was called Tejo Mahalaya.
“Tejo Mahalaya later became Taj Mahal,” he said while addressing a large gathering in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. “If we keep sleeping like this, most of our houses will also be renamed as masjids. In future, Lord Ram will be called Jahapana and Sita will become Bibi.”
During the Sabarimala controversy, Hegde displayed his misogyny, saying that the Kerala government’s handling of the crisis was akin to “daylight rape” of Hindus.
One of his most controversial statements came in 2017, when he claimed that the BJP will “soon change the Constitution” that mentions the word “secular”.
“Some people say the Constitution says secular and you must accept it,” he said at an event in Koppal in December 2017. “We will respect the Constitution, but the Constitution has changed several times and it will change in the future too. We are here to change the Constitution and we’ll change it.”
If that wasn’t enough, Hegde was allegedly caught on camera assaulting doctors at a private hospital in Karnataka’s Sirsi in January 2017. The five-time parliamentarian was furious with doctors for not providing adequate attention to his mother who had been admitted after suffering multiple fractures from a fall.
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The ‘instigator’ from Uttara Kannada district
Despite his penchant for controversies, Hegde is an established BJP leader.
He was first noticed by the party in 1996, when U. Chittaranjan, then a party MLA, was murdered in Bhatkal near Mangalore. Violent clashes broke out as a fallout of the attack and lasted for more than a year. Seventeen people died as communal tension broke out in the coastal town.
Hegde, then a young member of the Hindu Jagran Vedike, the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, began to get noticed. He had been addressing several meetings to allegedly instigate people to avenge the killing of his ‘leader’ Chittaranjan.
Just two years before Chittaranjan’s death, Hegde along with a few of his friends raised the Tricolour at the disputed Idgah Maidan despite prohibitory orders being in place. It was the first time that the police and the RSS took notice of a lanky, radical youth leader.
Local BJP leaders in Bhatkal say that Hegde would tour Karwar, Sirsi, Bhatkal and its surrounding areas and soon became a local household name. In the late 90’s he even commissioned a documentary to be made on his achievements, which he gave the title, ‘The Real Hindu’.
Hegde filled the void left by Chittaranjan in the communally-sensitive region of Uttara Kannada.
In 1996, he defeated former Rajasthan governor and Congresswoman Margaret Alva to take over as the MP from the North Kannada Lok Sabha constituency. He was 28 years old then and has not looked back since. His stronghold consists of six assembly segments, spanning from Karwar along the coast to Khanapur in North Karnataka, and has helped the BJP retain this seat for the last 20 years.
Speaking to The Print, RSS spokesperson Rajesh Padmar said that one of the reasons behind Hegde’s popularity is that he is a smart strategist and an able administrator.
“His popularity has not waned over the years as he is known to be an accessible person for his voters and a thinker,” Padmar said. “We are a very big organisation and like many others, he too is a karyakarta but he also plays an important role in keeping Uttara Kannada remain our stronghold.”
Uttara Kannada district in-charge of the BJP, N.S. Hegde, says that the union minister’s remarks endear him to the Hindus in the region.
“I have seen him grow as a political leader and parliamentarian in the last two decades,” N.S. Hegde said. “He may be called a rabble-rouser but that’s what people love about him. He keeps projecting the Muslims as enemies and that seems to hit the right chord each time.”
Local Congress leaders agree that Hegde is a tough candidate to beat.
“He always plays with the emotions of people. In the last election, he asked his voters not to vote for him. He said ‘vote for Modi’,” said Santosh Gurumath, the state secretary of INTUC. “People thought Modi will bring major changes for them but, as usual, he has cheated them with false promises.”
ThePrint can’t even digest the truth ….. ThePrint was going ga-ga when RaGa declared himself Dattatreya Brahmin…. Hegde has spoken the truth only…. And Freedom of speech is also there for him….
ABSOLUTELY RIGHT !
” Handsome is as Handsome does”, is an old but true saying. Raga & his Congress should expect such taunts after what he himself says, and inspires his next ring leaders to do, on a DAILY basis, against Modi..
Only a DNA test can prove whether a person claiming to be a Brahmin is the son of a Brahmin. The father Brahmin also need the same test and his father also needs the same test. In that chain you will likely find several non-brahmins. What is the certainty that Hegde is a Brahmin, and finally what is so great about being a Brahmin after all?
Very well said, Govind.