Quick Take | Will this election see communal polarisation? Anantkumar Hegde gives a hint

Viju Cherian

Speaking at an event organised by the Hindu Jagrana Vedike at Kodagu in Karnataka on Sunday, January 27, Union minister Anantkumar Hegde said that “Regardless of caste and religion, a hand that touches a Hindu girl should not exist. History is written like that.” At the same function, Hedge also said that the Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple and that history has been distorted all these years.

Hegde, a Member of Parliament from Uttara Kannada in Karnataka, is no stranger to controversy or communal statements.

Earlier this month, after two women entered the temple at Sabarimala, in Kerala, Hegde reacted to the incident by saying that “it's totally daylight rape on Hindu people”.

In early 2018, he compared anti-BJP parties to “monkeys and donkeys”. The same year in an interview to Mint he acknowledged that polarising the people on the lines of religion was a good thing. With shocking candour, and in the process giving democracy a new definition, he said: “Polarising is real democracy. Polarising people for the right cause is democracy. That is politics”. In 2017 he infamously said, in connection to the word ‘secular’ in the Constitution, that “we are here to change the Constitution…”

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Yet if he is still a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s council of ministers, one would presume it is because the party sees a successful leader in him. After all he is not a rookie politician making controversial statements to attract attention. Hegde is a five-time MP from Uttara Kannada (formerly Kanara) and is the only non-Congress MP to have won from the communally-sensitive constituency.

If one were to take a cursory glance at the recent assembly election results in Uttara Kannada region, such fear-mongering and polarisation seems to have worked in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Take the 2018 assembly election results: in the eight assembly constituencies that fall under the Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP’s performance has improved. In 2013, only one BJP candidate won in these eight assembly seats. In 2018, thanks to a highly-polarised campaign, the BJP won five of the eight seats.

This shows that polarisation is paying the BJP dividends. However, it’s not just the BJP, other political parties also indulge in different forms of communal realpolitik. The inactions of the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in checking the growth of Right-wing groups in this region is an example.

So, three questions arise from Hedge’s latest insensitive comment and incorrect history lesson at Kodagu. One, is this a glimpse at what could be the BJP’s tone in the upcoming general elections? Two, if the BJP is trying this line in Karnataka, will similar tactics been adopted in other communally-sensitive parts of the country? Three, and most frightening is, if the BJP resorts to such regrettable measures, will other political parties, such as the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Trinamool Congress, etc., follow suit?

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