WHILE the earlier episodes of communal violence,
the 10 days of curfew and the disruption of life
were fresh in the memory of the people of
Karnataka, the Sangh Parivar instigated yet
another episode of well planned violence in two
assembly constituencies of Bangalore where the
BJP had won. The reason is simple. The BJP, which
won an unprecedented 79 seats in the Karnataka
assembly last time, is afraid of losing many of
its seats in the event of a new election. That is
the main reason that for both partners of the
present coalition government --- the BJP and the
JD(S), with the letter S ironically standing for
“secular” --- are somehow continuing their unholy
alliance with all its contradictions. The Sangh
Parivar wants to use the BJP’s hold on
administration to polarise the polity on communal
lines and make the state one of its secure bases.
It has held several baithaks here and the RSS’s
chief and other national leaders are making
frequent visits to the state --- many a time
unannounced.

 RALLY’S FAILURE & ITS AFTERMATH

That is why the Parivar is inciting a number of
local or village level communal conflicts in its
old bases from where its men were elected several
times in elections. They made in the past and are
still making all out efforts to create a
controversy around a Sufi dargah in Baba
Budangiri and use the issue to polarise the
people on communal lines. When the NDA government was in power in New Delhi, the BJP’s Ananth Kumar, then a central minister, had openly
declared that they would make Baba Budangiri the
Ayodhya of the south and Karnataka a Gujarat.

Recently, in November 2006, during the rallies
that were held to raise anew the Baba Budangiri
issue, they incited communal violence in
Mangalore and the surrounding talukas. The ten
days of curfew that had to be imposed at that
time, some other factors and also the CPI(M)’s
intervention ignited the common people’s dislike
for the communal forces. This was evident from
their rally at Baba Budangiri on December 3,
2006. While the Parivar used to mobilise 30,000
to 50,000 people in the earlier previous years,
the December 3 rally was a big failure, with only
3,000 people participating in it.

However, the Sangh Parivar’s response to its
failure has been to step up its communal
propaganda and drive by organising a series of
“Virat Hindu Samaveshas” (Grand Hindu
Congregations) in the name of M S Golvalkar’s
centenary at the takuka and district levels and
within cities. For its public meetings during
this drive, the Parivar not only roped in popular
swamis and mutt chiefs belonging to many castes,
but also misused the images of Bhagat Singh,
Vivekananda, Ambedkar, Karnataka’s social
reformers like Basavanna and Kanaka Dasa,
venerated by Lingayats and shepherds, along with
Golvalkar’s images. The Parivar also sought to
exploit issues and non-issues like terrorism, the
so-called minority appeasement, cow slaughter and
conversions etc in a bid to incite communal
hatred. Tens of lakhs of rupees were spent to
decorate whole towns or cities with cutouts,
banners and flags. Many of the cutouts displayed
the images of cow slaughter, or of Shivaji
thrusting his sword into the body of a Mughal
commandant, or of gods in militant postures.
These Virat Hindu Samaveshas were preceded by
meetings involving doctors, advocates, bus
owners, hotel owners and workers in such
establishments. Several motorcycle rallies were
organised as part of preparation of each
Samavesha. The whole scene looked intimidating
and made the minorities, particularly the
Muslims, anxious.

A recent development is that this situation is
being used by Muslim fundamentalists who have
formed an organisation, called the Karnataka
Forum for Dignity (KFD), and are working in close
association with the fundamentalist National
Democratic Front (NDF) of Kerala. It is also
associated with the PWG group of naxalites in
Karnataka. They are thus only giving excuses to
Sangh Parivar to incite communal hatred by making
crude efforts to attack the Sangh Parivar rallies
and organise Muslims for rallies. The KFD too is
spending several lakhs of rupees on propaganda
materials and other things.

 COMMUNAL VIOLENCE IN BANGALORE

On the same day when the CITU held a grand rally
at the conclusion of the all-India CITU
conference in Bangalore on January 21 when a
massive turnout of workers raised militant
slogans against communalism, the RSS organised
three Virat Hindu Samaveshas at three different
places in Bangalore city. While going in a
procession to the venue of the Samavesha being
held at Halasur, Sangh Parivar’s activists passed
through minority areas and markets where they
burnt buses and auto-rickshaws as well as looted
and burnt shops. More than 40 vehicles (buses and
auto-rickshaws) belonging to drivers from the
minority community were thus consigned to flames.
When the police resorted to lathicharge and
firing, a boy of 12 years of age was killed and
more than 40 persons were wounded. Curfew was
imposed for two days. Though curfew was relaxed
later, section 144 continued for some more time.
More than 400 youth were arrested and kept in
undisclosed places but, surprisingly, most of the
people hurt in the lathicharge and firing as well
as most of those arrested after the violence
belonged to the minority community. Policemen
also barged into the houses of Muslim citizens at
the midnight, and beat up women, children and old
people while arresting the able-bodied persons.

Perhaps to avoid the stigma that stuck to the
Sangh Parivar in regard to the Mangalore communal
violence a few months ago, the Parivar cunningly
used the protest actions organised on January 19
by the Muslim masses against the hanging of
Saddam as its starting point. On January 19
itself, a communal conflict erupted when two
groups destroyed banners and festoons belonging
to one another. Many vehicles were damaged, and
lathicharge and firing had to be resorted.
Inspite of such incidences of violence, however,
the administration granted permission for holding
the RSS’s Hindu Samajotsava and rallies.

 CPI(M)’S STANDPOINT

The CPI(M) has been consistently intervening in
the situations of communal violence in the past.
Its cadres and leaders have visited the affected
areas, consoled the people and demanded actions
against the culprits and also against the
conniving police officials.

On the issue of the RSS-BJP depredations
regarding the Baba Budangiri shrine, the CPI(M)’s
independent intervention and its joint actions
along with progressive forces, litterateurs and
other intellectuals had forced the state
government to go on defensive. Even though being
a ruling coalition partner, the BJP could not
have its way in introducing Hindu rituals in the
Sufi shrine and converting this Sufi dargah into
a Datta temple.

The DYFI organised at Baba Budangiri a rally of
the youth from all over the state, with the
slogan “Youth March for Communal Harmony.”

With regard to the Virat Hindu Samaveshas also,
the CPI(M) has condemned the misuse of images of
Bhagat Singh and other national heroes, and has
taken initiative to mobilise the progressive
forces to condemn this practice.

In regard to the Bangalore violence, a fact
finding mission of the CPI(M), led by its state
secretary G N Nagaraj, visited on January 23 the
areas affected and the hospitals where the
injured were undergoing treatment. The delegation
comprised the party’s state secretariat members V
J K Nair, Maruthi Manpade, S Y Gurushanth and
Prasanna Kumar, state committee members K Prakash
and K N Umesh, a number of activists and auto
drivers.

On January 24, another fact finding team visited
the areas; it consisted of some eminent writers,
and film and theatre artists, dalit activists,
trade unionists and others. These progressive
intellectuals and leaders from the Left parties
also addressed a joint press conference, while a
delegation of intellectuals and Left parties
later met the state’s chief minister and the home
minister.

Now the CPI(M) has made the following demands:

1. Ban on holding Virat Hindu Samajotsavas or Samaveshas in coming days.

2. Removal of cutouts and banners inciting
violence or spreading communal hatred.

3. Action against the authorities who
permitted the holding of the Virat Hindu
Samajotsavas and rallies relating to them on
January 21, even after the communal violence of
January 19.

4. Removal of R Ashok, minister in charge of
Bangalore district, who belongs to the BJP and
was responsible for permitting the Hindu
Samajotsavas on January 21.

5. Release of all the innocent people arrested.

6. Action against such speeches as incite communal violence.

The CPI(M) has also appealed to the swamis and
mutt chiefs not to participate in the Virat Hindu
Samajotsavas. Further, it has also appealed to
the followers of these mutts and the followers of
Basavanna, Kanaka Dasa, Ambedkar etc to raise
their voice against these Hindu Samajotsavas.

It is ironical that while misusing the symbols
and saints of various castes and giving a call
for the Hindus of all castes to unite, many of
the upper caste mutt chiefs as well as BJP
leaders protested against giving eggs as part of
the midday meals scheme claiming that egg is a
tamas (lowly) food and that only satvika
(vegetarian) food like milk and fruits must be
given under this scheme. The chiefs of mutts
belonging to the non-vegetarian castes have been
keeping mum for the fear that they would not be
invited to the Hindu Samajotsavas. It is ironical
that the JD(S) chief minister, who is identified
with a non-vegetarian caste and champions the
cause of the OBCs, succumbed to the pressure from
BJP leaders and mutt chiefs to withdraw the order
regarding distribution of eggs and instead
ordered the supply of milk.