Karnataka’s right-wing push, and some usual suspects

The founder of the Sri Rama Sene is now the mainstay of debates on local television channels on issues such as restriction of Muslims at temple festivals, halal meat boycott, and the purchase of mangoes from Muslim fruit sellers.

The right-wing leader was a member of the Bajrang Dal before being expelled in 2004 following discord over his ambitions. Muthalik is infamous for his organisation’s attack on women at a pub in Mangalore in 2009 and was among the 28 people arrested.

The BJP officially welcomed him into its fold ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls after he threatened to contest from the Huballi parliamentary seat against then BJP president Prahlad Joshi. But the party dropped him soon after.

Several men with links in the past to the Sri Rama Sene, including the alleged shooter, are accused in the murder case of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru in September 2017. Long an opponent of halal products, Muthalik’s political career found a new lease of life during the campaign against halal meat that began in the run-up to the recent Ugadi festival.

Siddalinga Swamy (Sri Rama Sene)

The self-proclaimed sadhu and associate of Pramod Muthalik has several hate-speech cases against his name.

He is the working president of the Sri Rama Sene and made the news in 2020 when he warned that those opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home minister Amit Shah would meet the same fate as Gauri Lankesh.

This February, Swamy and Muthalik insisted on conducting a “purification ceremony” at a shrine in the town of Aland in Kalaburagi district where both Hindus and Muslims worship. They planned to conduct the ceremony as Muslims were planning a ritual. But the police barred the Sri Rama Sene leaders from entering the district to maintain law and order. In response, BJP MP and Union minister Bhagwanth Khuba and other party leaders marched to the shrine in violation of prohibitory orders.

For the last couple of weeks, Siddalinga Swamy has been calling for a boycott of Muslim traders and fruit sellers, and halal meat.

Sharan Kumar (VHP)

The former Bajrang Dal leader from Dakshina Kannada’s Mangaluru region is a regional secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, another Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliate. Kumar, also known as Pumpwell after the neighbourhood he is from, has been at the forefront of the campaign to keep Muslim traders out of temple festivals in Dakshina Kannada over the past month.

On March 23, Kumar and other VHP leaders submitted a memorandum to state Muzrai (Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments) Minister Shashikala Jolle in which they demanded that “non-Hindus” not be allowed to do business during temple feasts. Kumar has several hate-speech cases pending against him from the time before the BJP came to power in the state in 2019.

In August 2020, the then BJP home minister and current Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai was reportedly heard telling Kumar that the government would drop all pending cases against him. A video of the purported conversation was briefly posted on social media by the right-wing activist and it went viral. During Kumar’s time in the Bajrang Dal, activists associated with the group were involved in several incidents of moral policing in the Mangaluru area.

Kumar is a businessman who runs a firm called Eshwari Housekeeping and Security Services. The company has obtained contracts to provide security to several establishments, including a few malls in Mangaluru. But sources in the police said incidents of moral policing had stopped in the shopping malls where Kumar’s company provides security.

Apart from these men, some BJP leaders have also pushed such an agenda through their comments.

Last month, party general secretary CT Ravi claimed that the sale of halal meat by Muslims was part of an “economic jihad”.

Jolle told reporters earlier this month that whatever the Hindu outfits were doing was right. “The issue of halal and non-halal is very much prevalent in coastal Karnataka if not in other parts of the state. I feel that whatever our pro-Hindu outfits are doing appears right. They are spreading awareness about the ‘jhatka cut’ of the animal because it has to be offered to God. I am in favour of these organisations.”

The incumbent state BJP president and Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, however, has claimed that the party has been neutral on the halal issue. “People have their stance on halal and jhatka cut meat. BJP has not supported any community,” he said last week.