Karnataka polls: Why communal passions have remained cool in the coastal region this time around

Karnataka polls

In February, BJP state President and MP Naleen Kumar Kateel, speaking in Karnataka’s Shivamogga district, said that the 2023 Assembly election would not be fought between the BJP and the Congress, but between the ideologies of RSS ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Mysuru warrior Tipu Sultan, who fought against the British, among others. Earlier in Mangaluru, he had asked the party cadres not to focus on infrastructure but on combating ‘love jihad’. [Love jihad is a conspiracy theory suggesting that Muslim men target non-Muslim women for conversion by leading them on].

Around the same time, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was speaking in Puttur, in the coastal Dakshina Kannada district, said the Congress and the JD(S) “who believe in Tipu'' cannot do any good for Karnataka. “The BJP takes its inspiration from 16th-century Tuluva queen of Ullal, in Mangaluru, Rani Abbakka Chowta (who resisted the Portuguese), to give the state a prosperous rule,'' he claimed. Tuluva refers to the Tulu speaking people of the region.

Barring the above exceptions, communal rhetoric, including on issues such as Hijab, Halal, Azaan and economic boycott of Muslim traders, has largely been missing in the campaigns of all the political parties in the coastal region of Karnataka. While BJP leaders have been focusing on the advantages of a double-engine government (same-party rule at the Centre and in the State), the Congress and the JD(S) have been highlighting the failures of the Basavaraj Bommai government. The JD(S) has minimal presence in the region.

Of the 19 seats in the three coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada (8), Udupi (5) and Uttara Kannada (6), the BJP won 16 and the Congress had to contend with 3 in the 2018 Assembly polls. It was a reverse result for both parties, as the Congress had swept the coastal region by winning 13, with the BJP and Independents winning three each in 2013. In the Assembly elections to be held on May 10, the Congress is trying to wrest the region from the BJP by rectifying the mistakes it had made in the past when proper representation was not given to communities that are the deciding factors between victory and defeat.

The BJP has been accused of turning the three districts into a laboratory for its Hindutva agenda and polarising votes along communal lines. Some political observers claim it's just not the three districts with 19 seats that have been saffronised, but also neighbouring Shivamogga with seven and Chikkamagaluru with five seats. “In Karnataka, 31 seats in these five districts are known as the saffron belt because the majority of the BJP and RSS leaders are from here,'' said a political commentator.Those leaders include BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh, RSS leaders Dattatreya Hosabale, CR Mukund and Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat. Prominent BJP leaders from these districts are BS Yediyurappa, Nalin Kumar Kateel, Shobha Karandlaje, V Sunil Kumar, V Sadananda Gowda and KS Eshwarappa.

Prof PL Dharma, Political Science department, Mangalore University, told Moneycontrol that this time around, none of the parties has been referring to communal issues, except for the Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political arm of the banned Popular Front of India. Earlier, it used to be hate speeches, but the BJP now is talking about developmental works, he said. The Congress focus is on 40-4-40 (alleging that the BJP regime is corrupt and charges a 40 percent commission on contracts; highlighting the Congress’ four guarantee schemes; and asking voters to give only 40 seats to the BJP),'' he added.

Dharma said one reason for the lack of communal rhetoric is because the BJP and Congress have chosen new faces for these elections. The BJP has given tickets to three news faces in Dakshina Kannada and four in Udupi “These newcomers have not been able to articulate well to allegations of polarisation and have confined themselves to development matters,'” he states.

During his visit to Mangalore and Udupi last week, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi interacted with fishermen in Kapu in Udupi district. He promised Rs 10 lakh insurance cover for the fishermen, Rs one lakh interest-free loans to fisherwomen and Rs 25 subsidy per litre of diesel up to a maximum of 500 litres per day if the Congress is voted to power in Karnataka.

After blitzkrieg rallies in north Karnataka, Bengaluru, Kolar and Hassan over the weekend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Mangalore on May 3. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is also expected to accompany the Prime Minister on some campaign stops. Adityananth will be in Bantwal and Uttara Kannada on May 6.

Why did the coastal belt turn saffron?

According to sources, the polarisation of votes commenced after BJP veteran LK Advani's rath yatra in 1990 followed by the demolition of the Babri masjid in 1992. While the Hindutva factor was active, the Congress, which had a hold over the districts, failed to project new faces from the Billava (toddy tappers) and Mogaveera (fishermen) communities, who are the majority, followed by Muslims, Christians, Bunts and Brahmins.

Congress sources admitted that besides the lack of narrative or agenda, a major reason for the party to lose in the three districts was fielding leaders who were repeatedly losing the elections. Another was former Chief Minister (late) S Bangarappa quitting the Congress to join the Samajwadi Party and the BJP apart from floating two outfits. Hailing from Shivamogga, Bangarappa represented the toddy tapper community, called Devarus in Shivamogga, Billavas in Dakshina Kannada, Namdharis in Uttara Kannada with the common nomenclature being Idigas. “While Bangarappa returned to the Congress in later years, the party cadres who had followed him to the other outfits stayed back in the BJP,” a source said.

The BJP is said to have capitalised on the Congress’s poor candidate selection from the Billava and Mogaveera communities in the past. The saffron party wooed the Billavas and the Mogaveeras, whose population is in the first and second positions, respectively, in the region, by giving them political representation at the grassroots level and in the government. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s cabinet has two ministers, V Sunil Kumar and Kota Srinivasa Poojary, from the Billava community.

Prof Muzaffar H Assadi, Political Scientist & Dean, Faculty of Arts, Mysore University, said the history of polarisation of votes in the coastal district and the emergence of Rightist forces goes back to the 1970s, when former Chief Minister D Devaraj Urs introduced the Land Reforms Act, where the tiller became the owner of the land. The Act helped the other backward classes (Billavas, Mogaveeras and Muslims), who were agricultural labourers, to become owners of land, but led to a social and economic divide later.

Shah, during his election campaign in 2018, had claimed that 24 Hindu activists had been killed in the coastal belt during the Congress rule between 2013 and 2018. The victims in these revenge killings were either from the Billava, Mogaveera or Muslim communities. “Realisation is happening among the two communities now that their youths were used by the BJP in the hate killings because it was either a Billava or a Mogaveera who was killed or arrested by the police. My party has to make use of this situation, if it has to regain its hold here,'' Congress sources said.

The Congress has been banking on the Muslim vote bank and Christians to an extent. But the emergence of the SDPI in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi has been a cause of concern for the Congress. The SDPI, with its student wing Campus Front of India, has been making inroads in the two districts. During the Hijab controversy, it was active and in fact accused of inciting pro-Hijab students to defy the government order banning the attire.

Why have land reforms become a faultline?

Assadi maintains that the land reforms Act brought about a paradigm shift, wherein OBCs became owners of small patches of land. Though this provided them with a social identity, it did not give them economic space.

“This was the time Sri Ram Sene and others entered and assured the OBCs a social and economic identity. This is the reason the OBCs shifted away from the Congress to the BJP or Hindutva forces permanently,” said Assadi.