Timing is everything. Until last week, not many people even in his hometown Hubballi knew who Srikant Pujari was. Hindu activist’s arrest in a three-decade-old case related to violence after the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in December 1992 has now created a storm in Karnataka politics, much to the chagrin of the Congress and its government.
By arresting a Hindu activist ahead of the opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the authorities have handed over a stick to the opposition to beat the government with. The police officials dealing with the old cases had certainly not anticipated the kind of backlash and how their action could trigger statewide protests by the opposition, putting the government in a tight spot. It looked as though the card was thrown in favour of the BJP by Congress.
The BJP state leadership is going the whole hog on the issue to re-energise its cadre and unite its leaders. It has also come in handy for the leaders to divert attention from internal differences that were causing embarrassment to the leadership ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. More importantly, the BJP state leaders seem to be trying to reassure their support to the party workers, who are accusing the government of targeting them by reopening old cases or foisting false cases. The charge which the government has vehemently denied.
The movement associated with the Ram temple is an emotive issue. The BJP leaders are making all-out efforts to use Pujari’s arrest ahead of the temple inauguration to brand the Siddaramaiah government “Anti-Hindu.” They see a pattern in the CM’s statements related to increasing funding for the welfare of the minority community, his directions to the officials to prepare an action plan to develop minority community residential colonies and his remarks on lifting the hijab ban in educational institutions, which he later amended.
Siddaramaiah never let go of any opportunity to prove himself as a champion of the backward classes and minorities, while the opposition BJP leaders show the same readiness in targeting the CM and his government as anti-Hindu.
The Congress party and Siddaramaiah are wary of being branded as anti-Hindu. The BJP too will be cautious in its approach. The recent assembly poll results in the state showed that emotive issues alone will not work well with neutral voters in Karnataka.
In the last few days, many senior BJP leaders, including the party MPs and Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly R Ashoka, were detained by police for staging protests at police stations with a placard; “I am also a Ram Mandir Kar Sevak, arrest me.”
Senior Congress leader BK Hariprasad’s controversial remarks on the possibility of a “Godhra-like” incident in the state ahead of the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22, added to Congress’s discomfiture. Hariprasad is a senior leader with vast experience in serving the party at the national level. However, his party government appeared to have neither taken his remarks seriously nor the BJP’s demand to act against him.
The BJP may try to sustain the same tempo till the temple inauguration and even beyond, till the Lok Sabha polls. That may be a difficult task for the state leaders, but for now, they have managed to push the government on the backfoot.
At a time when the state government is launching its fifth guarantee scheme “Yuva Nidhi” to provide financial assistance of Rs 3,000/month to unemployed graduates and Rs 1,500/month to diploma holders, the political narrative is hovering around the government’s action against Hindu activists.
On January 12, the government is organising a massive programme in Shivamogga to launch the scheme. The State Government would certainly like to keep the focus and the narrative around the guarantees. But, given its leaders’ tendency to commit faux pas, it is not such an easy task for the ruling party.
The Congress is also faced with the growing demand to create more Deputy Chief Minister (DyCMs) posts to give importance to backward classes and minorities. Ministers in the Siddaramaiah cabinet are holding dinner meetings to discuss the issue and are openly expressing their views on the need to create more DyCM posts.
It is seen as an attempt within the Congress to checkmate DyCM and State Congress president DK Shivakumar’s growing influence within the party and the government. The Congress Central leadership will be concerned about the demand for more DyCMs gaining traction ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. After all, in politics, it is all about timing.