Slugfest over Bajrang Dal activist’s murder

Though Karnataka home minister Araga Jnanendra has categorically denied that the hijab row has anything to do with Harsha’s murder, senior BJP leader KS Eshwarappa spared no time to blame “Muslim Goondas” for the killing.

Bajrang Dal activist Harsha Jingade’s murder is set to become one of the biggest political slugfest in the run-up to the 2023 assembly elections as the simmering tensions rise in the communally sensitive region of Shivamogga

Harsha Hindu, as he is better known, was murdered by six persons on Sunday night while he was near his home in Seegehatti, a small neighbourhood in the district. (AP)

Harsha Hindu, as he is better known, was murdered by six persons on Sunday night while he was near his home in Seegehatti, a small neighbourhood in the district.

“They intend to target Hindu workers. All these Jihadi organisations. It is not about some issue, but it is their thinking which is extremist and against the country. We will respond in the same language as them,” Yashpal Suvarna, the National Treasurer of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) OBC (other backward classes) morcha said after visiting Harsha’s home on Tuesday.

Suvarna is also the vice-chairman of the college development council of Government Girls Pre-University College in Udupi, which is at the epicentre of the Hijab row as the protests that began there in the last week of December, has since spread to the entire state.

Despite prohibitory orders on Sunday night, a large gathering was allowed to take Harsha’s body in a procession, in which Eshwarappa and Shivamogga Member of Parliament BY Raghavendra had participated.

To be sure, six people have been arrested for the murder, property worth crores of rupees have been destroyed, and at least eight people were hurt. However, only one case of violating prohibitory order has been filed, and no one is named, according to the police.

“On Sunday night itself 144 was clamped down and the procession took place on Monday,” Siddaramaiah, the leader of the opposition said.

“They (BJP) are in power. Who is in the government? Mr Eshwarappa is in the government. Let him ban it if he has the information and evidence. I have no problems. Let them give it to the NIA (National Investigation Agency (NIA). I demand a judicial probe,” Siddaramaiah added.

Similar to 2018, the BJP leaders have demanded a ban on organisations like the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and its parent, Popular Front of India (PFI).

“It was a government-sponsored communal clash, and the entire local administration was involved. There are people offering rewards and provoking others. This is a political murder, which is being used to save the Bommai government from collapsing,” Imran Ahmed, the district president of the SDPI told HT.

In July 2017, Shobha Karandlaje, the firebrand member of parliament from Udupi-Chikmagalur and now Union minister of state, had submitted a list to then home minister Rajnath Singh, in which she alleged that 23 Hindus were “murdered” in Karnataka since 2015 as a way to target the then chief minister, Siddaramaiah.

Her list included even those who died by suicide, but her tone and tenor remained steadfast, making one provocative statement after another, often referring to killings by ‘Jihadi’s’.

Suvarna and several other members of the BJP continue to use the term Jihadi as a way to mobilise support where an attempt is being made to move beyond caste-based politics to religion-based politics, which was largely limited to just the three coastal districts of Karnataka.

“We have voted for (BS) Yediyurappa. He never indulged in attacking any community,” Aslam Pasha, a 59-year-old at OT Road, one of the worst affected areas during the Monday evening riots, told HT.

Shivamogga, locals said, is used to such violence breaking out as the district has a large population of Maratha and other Hindu groups, often pitted against the minority communities.

Shivamogga has given the highest number of chief ministers to Karnataka but remains on the boil ever since the Hijab row broke out.