Karnataka’s communal cauldron keeps bubbling as elections approach

Campaigns against minority communities have been relentless in the State over the last few months

Karnataka, headed for Assembly elections next year, has over the last few months witnessed back-to-back campaigns against minority communities. While end of 2021 saw a spate of campaigns related to what was called “forced conversions”, the row over girls wearing hijab (head scarf) early this year was followed by a series of them.

These campaigns are largely led by Hindutva fringe groups, but several key BJP leaders have openly supported them, and the State Government, especially Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, has been accused of “strategic silence.”

Opposition leaders Siddaramaiah and H.D. Kumaraswamy have come down heavily on the ruling party. A section of writers, artists, academicians and human rights organisations have written open letters appealing for restoration of peace, but there has been no response from the Government. Only concern expressed by executive chairperson and founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics Limited, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw -- that a communal atmosphere could hurt Karnataka’s image as a IT/BT and investment hub — had the Chief Minister responding, appealing for “restraint”.

However, the campaigns have not stopped. There is a new one almost every day — to ban halal meat, to stop Muslim drivers from making trips to Hindu religious places, to not buy fruits from Muslim trader and so on.

“All the syncretic traditions of the State have come under attack from Hindutva groups. It is an unpardonable crime to convert all avenues of syncretic traditions into a controversy and use them for political gains,” an open letter by 61 writers of the State stated. There have been physical clashes between the religious groups too, for instance in Aland in Kalaburagi and Mulbagal in Kolar. 

Private television news channels have faced accusations of giving space to Hindutva fringe elements and carrying out a relentless campaign. Mr. Kumaraswamy, speaking in the Assembly on March 30, blamed television media of constantly churning the communal cauldron in the State and appealed to them to refrain from airing provocative statements.

Writer Kum. Veerabhadrappa, one of the 61 signatories to the open letter who has now received a death threat, and former Chief Ministers Siddaramaiah and Mr. Kumaraswamy, have also blamed television media for “vilifying all critics of the ruling regime as anti-Hindus”.