Colour is communal in poll-bound Karnataka
The wall of the Kalaburagi Railway Station in north Karnataka has got a fresh coat of white paint, not because it was needed, but because a bunch of activists found the green wall “objectionable” and threatened to paint it saffron. The Railways decided to sidestep any controversy and painted it white. The row may have played out in an insignificant corner of the state. But it is a pointer to the increasing incidence of ‘colour politics’ seeping into the body politic, and is reminiscent of the Haj House wall painted saffron in Uttar Pradesh. The politics of colour has become the new assertion of identity, with connotations of a certain culture and community.
The wall row came almost on the heels of the bus shelter ‘dome’ controversy on the Ooty-Nanjangud highway in Mysuru district last month. Local BJP MP Pratap Simha had declared the three domes atop a bus shelter “Islamic” and “mosque-like” and vowed to demolish it. His objections to the architecture were fuelled by an underlying fear that the shelter could be used as an impromptu mosque. Defending the domed structure was party colleague and BJP MLA of the constituency, S A Ramadas, who argued that the shelter was in sync with the heritage look of Mysuru city and its famed Mysuru Palace.
Incidentally, Mysuru Palace is in the Indo-Saracenic style with a touch of Rajput and Mughal architecture. The row between the two leaders over street furniture amused the state and would have been comical if not for its regrettable communal angle. The NHAI also pitched in and ordered its demolition, and it was finally sorted out quite amicably—two domes were demolished, and the biggest dome and the kalashas were left intact so that neither leader lost face.
Such banal controversies are only expected to increase in a state where assembly elections are due in a few months and where leaders hope to stay relevant by keeping the communal cauldron boiling. Since 2019, Karnataka’s image of an open, progressive state has taken a beating, with over 160 cases of communal violence reported from Shivamogga, Dakshina Kannada, Gadag and Bagalkot districts. Ruling party leaders have raised a string of controversies, like the hijab ban, halal boycott, non-Hindu economic boycott, saffronisation of textbooks and much more, in an attempt to adopt Yogi Adityanath’s rather successful playbook in Uttar Pradesh. Whether it delivers electoral dividends will be evident a few months from now.