The Polarisation Game: Blame it on Bommai

Karnataka’s poet laureate, the late Kuvempu, had described the state as Sarva Janangadha Shantiya Thota, or “a garden of peace among all communities”. It is no longer that. The communal cauldron, which was stirred a few months ago, is steadily reaching boiling point. Karnataka’s image as a progressive state and on that enjoys communal harmony is in tatters, both nationally and internationally.

Though the BJP has intermittently ruled over Karnataka for over eight years since 2008, the state’s turn towards becoming one more communal laboratory started only a few months ago, following Basavaraj Bommai taking over as Chief Minister in July last year. The state has seen three other BJP Chief Ministers — B S Yediyurappa, Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar — but none of them played with communal fire. Why is an atmosphere of hate being created throughout the state now? Is Bommai himself willingly and deliberately dividing society for political gains — both his own survival as well as electoral gains in the coming Assembly elections? Or has he become a puppet in the hands of hardliners in the party and its Parivar? Whatever be the truth, Bommai’s failure to rein in Hindutva groups and restore communal peace and order has exposed him as one of the weakest Chief Ministers the state has had.

An engineering graduate, Bommai hails from a socialistic background, growing up in the shadow of his illustrious father, S R Bommai, and had always been seen as a mature and humane politician. In November last, on Constitution Day, he had said, “The Constitution of India stands on the strong pillar of humanity which has united everyone. Humanitarian values are important for the development of any country.” Between words and action, there is such a large gap.

Originally a product of the Janata Parivar, Bommai joined the BJP in 2008. He has since held several important portfolios when the party was in power and had come to be regarded as an efficient minister. It was when he became Home Minister in the Yediyurappa cabinet that people began to perceive that he had put on another face.

One of the first instances of this was when he defended the arrest of a teacher and the mother of a young student of Shaheen Education Society, Bidar, on charges of sedition for a play that little children had staged regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The High Court not only threw out the case but passed severe strictures against the police for subjecting the children to interrogation, that too while carrying their guns. The same Home Minister looked the other way when the RSS-affiliated management of a high school in Dakshina Kannada made students enact the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

Bommai also failed to come to the rescue of the young Bengaluru-based climate activist, Disha Ravi, when Delhi Police barged into the city, arrested her and took her away in the trumped-up “toolkit” case. She was released from incarceration after several days, with a Delhi court observing that the police had failed to produce “even an iota” of evidence against her.

Again, soon after taking over as Chief Minister, Bommai defended moral policing in Dakshina Kannada, a region that has become the “laboratory” for communal politics in the state. When he described an egregious instance of moral policing as a natural “reaction to certain actions”, he gave an official stamp of endorsement to Hindutva groups taking the law into their own hands and dictating to people what they could and could not do in their personal lives.

The first to fall on the Hindutva radar was the Christian community. The Bommai government pushed through the controversial anti-conversion bill in the Assembly. Even before that, it ordered the intelligence department to create a database of all Christian priests, listing out their names and phone numbers and their churches and prayer halls in a clear move to intimidate the community. Attacks on prayer halls in many parts of the state followed, including even on Christmas day, even as the Chief Minister maintained a studied silence.

The focus of the powers-that-be has now shifted to attacking Muslims, starting with the hijab controversy, which could have been resolved locally amicably had the Chief Minister displayed statesmanship. Instead, it was allowed, even fuelled, to escalate into a Hindu-Muslim issue. Then came the campaign against Muslim traders setting up temporary stalls in temple fairs, with the government pulling out a little-known rule to claim that such participation by non-Hindus was banned by law.

It did not stop there, and there’s no sign that the efforts at polarisation will stop. Last week, a needless controversy was kicked up over halal meat. Bommai did try to wade into this issue, too, by promising to look into the “serious objections” that had apparently been raised about halal meat but has had to back off and take a conciliatory stand after Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw openly urged him to arrest the growing religious divide and ensure inclusive economic development of all in the state. This week’s flavour is the loudspeaker used for the Azan call.

Perhaps none of this is surprising, even if it is all shocking. Bommai has nothing big to show in terms of the government’s performance under him, and perhaps he is not sure that he can notch up anything in time for the elections. Nor does he measure up to his predecessor Yediyurappa as a mass leader. Perhaps he has concluded that going along with the polarisation game is the best way to win the coming Assembly polls and stay in power. Some believe that the Chief Minister is being arm-twisted by certain influential leaders, including a BJP national general secretary who hails from the state.

Whatever be his compulsions, Bommai must realise that even if he secures a victory for the BJP in the next elections, history will not judge him kindly if he lets this dangerous game continue. The Chief Minister should decide whether he wants to be remembered as one who took Karnataka to greater glory or as the one who sat by as hate and bigotry destroyed its soul.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Bengaluru)

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