BENGALURU: Karnataka RDPR Minister KS Eshwarappa, who has announced that he will resign from the cabinet on Friday, proved to be the enfant terrible who constantly put the Basavaraj Bommai government in a spot. He had made a habit of stoking contentious issues and making controversial statements, leading to some degree of discomfiture for the party.
He had to pay the ultimate price when an FIR charging him with abetment, was filed in contractor Santosh Patil’s suicide case. The hardcore pro-Hindutva leader with RSS backing has given the opposition much fodder, especially in the past few months when communal issues charged up the political domain. In February, when KPCC president DK Shivakumar alleged that the Tricolour was removed and a saffron flag was hoisted at a government college in Shivamogga, Eshwarappa had retorted that “the saffron flag will be hoisted on Red Fort in the future”.
The Congress, riven by internal bickering, had put up a show of unity to corner the ruling dispensation, and insisted that he be booked on sedition charges. The assembly witnessed a furore as Congress MLAs had demanded his resignation and staged a day and night sit-in. BJP National President J P Nadda, in an interview, had ticked off Eshwarappa, saying the party will never tolerate such remarks.
On February 20, when Bajrang Dal activist Harsha was killed in Shivamogga, Eshwarappa had jumped the gun to state that “Muslim goondas” had murdered him, without a preliminary investigation. He also organised Harsha’s funeral procession, which left a trail of arson, and had come under harsh criticism for violating prohibitory orders. As recently as April 8, Shivamogga police filed an FIR against Eshwarappa for alleged provocative statements.
He regularly shot off his mouth, whether he was in the House, in public or before the media. “Christians and Muslims one day will become RSS,” he had said recently. During the hijab row, Eshwarappa had defended the distribution of saffron stoles to youngsters.