JOIN USChief Minister, what shall Karnataka be?
The open letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai by 34 eminent personalities lamenting the loss of harmony, peace and tolerance in Karnataka is sad commentary on a state where these have been its hallmarks for long. Karnataka is no longer ‘Sarva Janangada Shantiya Thota’ — a garden of peace and amity among all communities — as poet laureate Kuvempu described it. Right-wing groups that turned the coastal districts into a ‘Hindutva laboratory’ are spreading their tentacles across the state, now seemingly with impunity. “In the last few months, the state has witnessed brutal killings in several districts, hate speeches, threats and attacks on places of worship belonging to religious minorities, honour killings, moral policing, misogynistic statements by legislators, and incidents of hostility and discord between religious groups,” the letter noted.
In response, Bommai has said that the rights of minorities were protected in the state, and action taken in case of any excesses against them. He said his government was committed to the education, employment and empowerment of minorities. But he has been inconsistent in his public utterances and inaction on the concerns raised. Only recently, he had defended right-wing vigilante groups who had indulged in moral policing, dismissing it as inevitable “action and reaction.” In addition to getting the anti-conversion bill, drafted to give right-wing vigilantes licence, passed in the Assembly, his government resorted to what amounted to intimidation of the Christian community by ordering profiling of churches, residential prayer houses and priests. As Home Minister, Bommai had backed the police when they registered a false case of sedition against a school in Bidar and subjected schoolchildren to interrogation by officers carrying weapons. He remained mum when Bengaluru (South) MP Tejaswi Surya called for Hindu seers to establish “annual targets” to convert Muslims and Christians to Hinduism. Unlike his predecessor, B S Yediyurappa, he is seen to be going along with the agenda of converting Karnataka into the next ‘Hindutva laboratory’ state.
Karnataka is the land of social reformers such as Basavanna. People of different communities and cultures have been living here in harmony. Its progressive edifice has been built over centuries, by both its social reformers and its rulers. It is one of the major reasons why those wanting to establish eminent institutions and world-class companies have always made a beeline to the state. Karnataka cannot afford to lose this hard-earned reputation. Bommai must decide what his legacy ought to be – a state that built on its progressive legacy and glory during his reign or one that he let descend into a communal cauldron under his watch.