This story first appeared in National Herald

Although it appears to be on the backfoot in Karnataka, the Bharatiya Janata Party is convinced that its communal campaign will pay dividend in the Assembly election expected in April-May

The past few years in Karnataka has witnessed a sustained communal campaign. The ban on hijabs in schools made international headlines. An anti-conversion bill was passed. Muslim traders were debarred from selling wares at Hindu festivals. Hindus were urged not to buy even fruits from Muslims. People visiting temples were advised to hire taxis from only vegetarians. Classrooms were painted saffron. Riots rocked Hubballi for which the BJP government blamed the previous government. In a viral video a Muslim university student was seen objecting to a teacher who linked him to a Pakistani terrorist.

It came as no surprise, therefore, when Home Minister Amit Shah, who has visited Karnataka five times in the last two months, declared at a political rally that a vote for the Congress or JD (S) would be a vote for people who ‘believe in Tipu Sultan, a traitor’. The stark choice was between PM Narendra Modi, who ‘builds temples’ and those who glorify Tipu Sultan, who destroyed them. As usual, Shah was mixing official business and meetings with his political engagements—something that he can do with impunity till the election is announced and the ‘model code of conduct’ come into force.

Tipu Sultan is of course something of an obsession with state BJP leaders. The assembly election this time, scheduled to be held in April-May, 2023, will be between Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (RSS ideologue) and Tipu Sultan, (18th century Mysuru warrior who died fighting the British) declared Karnataka BJP president and MP Naleen Kumar Kateel in Shivamogga. Don’t raise petty issues like roads and sewage, he exhorted people in Mangaluru. Love-jihad was far more serious, he held.

Former chief minister and Congress leader Siddarmaiah is mocked by BJP leaders and party MLA CT Ravi, named him Siddaramullah Khan. BJP minister CN Ashwath Narayana was forced to express his regret when his public statement that Siddaramaih should be ‘finished off’ like Tipu created a public furore. “Do you want Tipu or Savarkar? What did Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda do? You should finish him (Siddaramaiah) like they did,” he said. BJP has lately taken to claiming that the two Vokkaliga chieftains were involved in killing Tipu Sultan.

As part of this campaign, the BJP state government announced construction of a Ram temple’ at Ramanagara, where the blockbuster movie Sholay was shot, as a budget proposal for 2023-24. BJP’s ‘Ayodhya of the South’ Ramanagara, a Vokkaliga dominated district, is the home district of   State Congress president D K Shivakumar and is represented by former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.

Theatre personality and Karnataka Aam Aadmi Party Working President, Zafer Mohiuddin, sees a degree of desperation in the BJP. “Why is BJP living in the past, digging up 400-years-old history and connect it to the present context?  The desperation has extended beyond politics, says Mohiuddin, referring to the controversial play Tipu Nija Kanasagalu (Tipu’s real dreams), a play written and directed by Mysuru Rangayana director, Addanda C Cariappa. A temporary ban was obtained from a court by petitioners who alleged that the play had distorted history and facts.

Linguist and cultural activist Ganesh Devy says he is aghast at the brazen hate speech, communal innuendos and incitement. They can go unpunished only in fascist states because of the inaction of bodies meant to take cognisance of such acts and speech.  What has Karnataka to do with Savarkar, he wonders. “It intrigues me and defeats my understanding. Depicting Indian Muslims as traitors betrays ignorance of  the history of Independence,” he says, pointing out that Tipu Sultan, who fought against the East India Company and the British does belong to Karnataka, unlike Savarkar.

“The BJP government in the state has little to show as its achievements and will have to rely upon Modi’s charisma and polarisation of votes,” states A Narayana, Professor at the School of Policy and Governance, Azim Premji University.

Are voters influenced by hate? BJP will play both caste and communal cards, says a political commentator, because it has nothing to lose and very little to show. The party, he quips, revels in ‘speech-mongering’ and points to incendiary speeches by BJP leaders in Delhi during the anti-CAA protests and Delhi election.

Kannadigas temperamentally are not swayed by hate, points out Devy. “These BJP MLAs were not elected to make hate speeches. Industries are moving out of Karnataka to Hyderabad, standards of education are falling, corruption is increasing but the government is utilising all its energy in hate speeches, ” he adds.

Some political commentators blame the Congress for its failure to counter the hate speech more aggressively. “Statements by one or two Congress leaders slamming them will not cut any ice with the voters.  The opposition to hate speech should be stronger and sustained. It should ideally come from the civil society, which the Congress should seriously think of engaging,” he suggests.

BJP has the advantage of clarity. It is clear that Muslims, who constitute roughly 13 per cent of the voters, will not vote for it. It is also clear that it does not ‘need’ Muslim votes. Therefore, its choice is clear. It is the secular parties who seem to be confused on how to cope with the hatred and BJP’s communal politics, maintains Mohiuddin.

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This story first appeared in National Herald

They’ve had to change courses, colleges, even cities, or just drop out… Karnataka’s Muslim girl students recount what the sudden ban took away from them

CPI(M) legislator John Brittas said in the Rajya Sabha that an estimated 100,000 Muslim students have had to drop out of educational institutions in Karnataka after the hijab ban. To some that will sound like a deliberate overstatement for dramatic effect. But far from being an exaggeration, the ban has done far worse: apart for the dropouts, the ban has traumatised Muslim students and polarised college campuses.

The Karnataka government informed the state assembly in September last year that only around a thousand students had dropped out following the ban on hijab. But whatever be the actual number, it’s a fact that the education of a large number of Muslim girls has been disrupted.

Gowsiya should have graduated by now from the University of Mangalore. But thanks to the loss of two years due to the pandemic and the hijab controversy last year, the three-year undergraduate course has already stretched to five years. The B.Sc. (honours) distinction student of physics, chemistry and mathematics needs to complete another semester of six months.

She is not alone though. The state government’s sudden order banning head scarves inside the college campus and classrooms disrupted the education of many. “I was in the sixth semester, the final year, when authorities asked me to leave if I continued to wear the hijab inside the classroom. I sought a transfer to Besant college, affiliated to Mangalore University, but as it was mid-session for the college, I was asked to return in March 2023,’’ she confided.

Pointing out that losing an academic year is harder for the girls, she recalls that she has used the break to teach and also took up assignments for bridal make-up and applying mehndi. She also took up tailoring as part-time to earn what she could.

In a report titled ‘Closing the Gates to Education: Violations of Rights of Muslim Women Students in Karnataka’ released in January, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) documented the trauma of the students and examined the role of college authorities, the administration and the police.

“It was traumatic for the students. They had, a stroke, lost out on their education and support of friends and teachers they had long trusted. They found themselves isolated during the crisis, and wished more Indian citizens had stood up for their dignity and fundamental right,” the PUCL report stated.

The PUCL team collected testimonies from students from Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Raichur and Shivamogga districts of the state. The report established that the students were unfairly denied their right to education besides finding themselves at the receiving end of a climate of hate, hostility and misinformation.

Besides, a report in the Indian Express in January this year also confirmed that there has been a significant shift of Muslim students from government colleges to private pre-university colleges (PUCs) in Udupi district, which was the hotbed of the hijab protests in 2022. In 2022-23, the enrolment of Muslim students in government PUCs dropped by half, including that of Muslim boys (from 210 to 95), while Muslim girls’ enrolment dropped from 178 to 91 in PUCs in 2022-23. There has been a simultaneous offsetting of this drop by the increase in enrolment in private PUCs, it added.

Recalling the nightmare Gowsiya remembers, “At one point we agreed to remove the hijab and cover our heads with shawls (dupattas), which was of the same colour as our uniform, but even this was not allowed. I along with my friends then sat on the veranda and listened to the lectures; but we were asked to leave as we were accused of distracting the other students. Later, we shifted to the library but were thrown out from there as well. After that we moved out of the campus, but police would not allow us to sit at the gate.”

Students like Zubeida (name changed) chose to leave Mangaluru. Along with 10 other students Zubeida, a student of Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara (SDM) college run by Dharmadhikari of Kshetra Dharmasthala and Rajya Sabha MP D. Veerendra Heggade migrated to the minority-run Al-Ameen college in Bengaluru.

“The SDM college authorities kept us in suspense till the last minute; The exam timetable of the LLB was already out but our transfer certificates were not released. Our teachers took an undertaking that we would appear only for an internal examination. When we secured admission at Al-Ameen, we had to appear for 10 papers in the 10th semester, five from the ninth semester,” Zubeida recalled.

“I took an apartment on rent and shared it with four of my friends. I completed my LLB in December 2022. I am doing hifz-e-Quran (memorisation of the Quran), which I will complete by Ramzan. Thereafter I want to start practising law,’’ Zubeida said.

Fathima Shazma, a first-year B.A. student of journalism was also asked to leave the University of Mangalore college, when she refused to remove the hijab. Now a student in Besant College, she too had to start afresh. Others like Ayesha Afra were forced to switch courses because their new colleges did not have the streams or because the fees were steep.

Afra, a student of B.Sc (chemistry, biology and zoology) was in the third semester when the Hijab controversy broke out.

“Initially the college allowed us to cover our heads with our dupatta. But some classmates, among them my friends, complained and we were asked to leave. I have enrolled in a college which allows hijab and abaya and have started afresh by opting for engineering in biotechnology. I lost two years, while some of my friends who could not afford the fees have discontinued education,’’ Afra said.

There have also been students who decided to comply with the controversial rule because they ran out of options. Zaleka Filha says, “I had no option as I was in the fourth semester of microbiology when the controversy started. We met Congress MLA U.T. Khader who spoke to the Dakshina Kannada deputy commissioner. The DC said the vice chancellor was against any relaxation of the ban. I now remove the hijab in the classroom.’’

Elyas Muhammed Thumbe, national general secretary, SDPI, the political arm of the banned People’s Front of India, feels the hijab ban will be an electoral issue in the coastal belt during assembly elections in May.

“We are waiting for the Supreme Court’s ruling on the appeal challenging the earlier split verdict,’’ he added.

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This story first appeared in The News Minute

Karnataka BJP is opting for social engineering ahead of the Assembly elections by trying to win the confidence of Muslims and cut the mutual indifference.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to BJP workers in Hyderabad and New Delhi, in July 2022 and January 2023 respectively, to reach out to Pasmanda Muslims and involve them in the electoral process, irrespective of whether they vote for the party or not, is seeing results in Karnataka, which goes to polls in April 2023. Though Pasmanda Muslims in Karnataka are a small community identified under the general tag of ‘Muslims’, some BJP leaders have commenced the outreach.

Muslims in India are broadly categorised into three social groups—Syed-Ashrafs (religious leaders and aristocracy), Ajlaf (backward Muslims), and Arzal (Dalit Muslims). Ajlaf and Arzal are collectively known as Pasmanda Muslims. A Persian word that means ‘those left behind’ or the oppressed, the term is used for  socially and economically deprived classes among Muslims. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar account for a significant population of Pasmanda Muslims, with 3.5 crore and 1.5 crore respectively.

In Karnataka, the Nadafs and/or Pinjaras found in north Karnataka, whose profession is making cotton mattresses, can be loosely tagged as Pasmandas. The Muslim population in the state, who make up 12% of the population, received 4% of the total 50% reservation (before it was extended to 56% to include the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities). The Nadafs and/or Pinjaras are, however, placed in a category with 95 other castes sharing 4% reservation.

As part of the party’s efforts to reach out to Karnataka’s Muslims ahead of the elections,, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Lahar Singh Siroya met Karnataka’s Ameer-e-Shariat Maulana Sageer Ahmad Khan Rashadi in January and organised a harmony lunch that was attended by prominent Muslims. “The Ameer-e-Shariat wanted hate amongst communities to be diluted as there is no mutual trust in each other,” Lahar  Singh Siroya said. Both in January and earlier in November 2022, Lahar Singh Siroya held health camps in Shivajinagar and Chamarajapet Assembly constituencies where Muslim voters are in good numbers. He had also adopted 500 tuberculosis patients under the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat in Shivajinagar and donated equipment worth Rs 50 lakh to the Babu Jagjivan Ram BBMP Referral Hospital in Chamarajapet. “The Congress MLAs of the two constituencies Rizwan Arshad and BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan extended all the support I needed to conduct the programmes,” Lahar Singh Siroya added.

In yet another outreach effort, Uday B Garudachar, BJP MLA from Chickpet, another constituency with a large minority population, visited the Hazrat Sayed Safdar Ali Shah Qadri dargah in Chamarajpet and placed a chaddar. Dismissing that this was to appease the minorities, Garudachar said: “During the pandemic, I distributed food kits to all irrespective of their caste or religion. I belong to all communities. I am now planning to visit Kwaja Garib Nawaz dargah in Ajmer, the bulava (call) has to come,” he added. Placing chaddars at dargahs is a common practice followed by candidates across party lines.

The BJP ticket aspirant in Kalaburagi North, Chandrakant B Patil (Chandu Patil) has been advertising the work he had done during the pandemic. Kalaburagi North is  a Muslim-dominated constituency currently represented by Congress MLA Kaneez Fatima.

Modi’s “vote-grabbing” tactic

Former Rajya Sabha deputy chairman and Congress politician K Rahman Khan, who had instituted a survey of the socio-economic status of minorities in the state when he headed the Karnataka State Minorities Commission, slammed Modi’s call for reaching out to Pasmanda and Bohra Muslims (a sub-caste of the Shia sect hailing from Gujarat and Maharashtra, with a total population of 10 lakh to 12 lakh). According to him, there is no internal hierarchy within Muslims in Karnataka. “Modi is trying to drive a wedge within the Muslim community. Majority of Muslims are economically and socially backward and there are no Pasmanda Muslims in Karnataka. The fear of persecution is common to all Muslims,” he maintained. He further said that the Bohras cannot be dubbed as oppressed as they are a business community. “One should not be swayed by Modi’s divisive politics,” Khan stated. Modi had cultivated close ties with the Bohras, especially after the Gujarat riots of 2002. Their support for the BJP is said to have been boosted by the ease of doing business measures implemented by Modi while he was chief minister of the state.

Khan’s view is endorsed by media analyst NK Mohan Ram, who called Modi’s statement as a vote-grabbing tactic. “This is a wake up call to the Muslim community to be vigilant of fascists forces’ attempts to split the community,” he added. Author of the Kannada book Alienation of Muslims in the 21st Century, Mohan Ram said there has been a lapse by the forward Muslims, who have not taken along the oppressed lot in the community.

Bengaluru Jamia Masjid’s Maulana Maqsood Imran Rashadi pointed out that while Modi’s intention of inclusive politics is appreciated, it is not percolating to the intended. According to him, the Karnataka government cancelled two centrally sponsored scholarships earmarked for minorities. Children enrolled under the Right To Education scheme in private schools have been asked to leave and join government institutions as the government has stopped reimbursement of the fee.  “They promised but let us down,” he added.

Will Modi’s tactic work electorally? 

According to a senior BJP functionary, the biggest hurdle for the party has been to influence the mindset of the Muslims who have refused to accept the party.  “Muslims from other parties join the BJP, get some positions, but don’t stay for long. The community suffers from the `all or none’ phenomenon. There should be some common point with which they can align with us. It has been a challenge to identify that point,” he maintained.

Like Gujarat, the BJP has never considered giving tickets to the Muslims in the Assembly polls. Its outreach to the community has been limited to nominating late Mumtaz Ali Khan and former police officer Abdul Azeem to the Legislative Council. The latter now heads the State Minorities Commission. “There are Muslims in each of the 224 Assembly constituencies in Karnataka with votes ranging from 10,000 to 50,000. They will not vote even if the BJP fields a Muslim candidate,” a BJP functionary said.

BJP sources said that Muslim candidates have evinced interest in the upcoming polls. In the background of Modi’s statement to involve the community in the electoral process, these aspirants are hopeful of getting a ticket. Besides, at the BJP’s special executive meeting held on February 4, sources said the party leadership has issued strict directions to organise meetings and rallies for minorities to highlight achievements of the Union and state governments.

Socio-economic realities of Muslims in Karnataka 

The Nadafs and/or Pinjaras of the state, however, have not received answers for their petitions to the government. The communities were traditionally occupied in cotton mattress making. However, their product is no longer in demand after people began preferring branded and machine-made mattresses, said Karnataka State Nadaf, Pinjara Sangha President H Jaleelsab , “Earlier, we would visit houses to make cotton mattresses, but nobody wants them now. The profession is slowly dying with the younger generation in the community starting cycle repair shops, becoming mechanics, or agricultural labourers. As the Sangha’s president, it’s been difficult to even organise a day’s protest as none of them want to lose a day’s wages. We have been submitting petitions to governments. Two years ago, we approached the BJP government and even contacted the RSS leaders. Nothing has happened so far,” he added.

Jaleelsab said the Nadafs make up 25 lakh to 30 lakh people spread out in Shiggaon, Haveri, Gadag, Bidar,Belagavi, and Kalaburagi districts. They have, as mentioned earlier, been placed under category one of Karnataka’s reservation policy and share 4% reservation with 95 other castes. “There is no representation of our community either in the legislature or in the bureaucracy. The last representatives from our community were Mohammed Kasimsab M Nadaf, who represented Shiggaon constituency in 1978 and 1983, and NN Mardansab in 1972 on Congress tickets,” he added.

Imamsab M Nadaf, who was deputy mayor of Hubballi-Dharwad City Corporation from 1995-1996 representing the undivided Janata Dal, said that while the Congress has not given tickets to his community after 1983, he has not contested  on a ticket from Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)), of which he is a member now, as it has no vote bank in the district.

Representation of Muslims in the Assembly 

Over the years, the representation of Muslim law makers in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from either the Congress or the JD(S) has been dwindling. From 17 Muslim MLAs in 1978, to two in 1983, the current Assembly has seven. All of them are from the Congress.

In the upcoming polls, the Congress has received 109 applications from Muslim aspirants in Vijayapura City, currently represented by BJP’s Basanagouda Patil Yatnal. The seat has the highest number (26) of Muslim ticket aspirants, followed by Haveri and Hubballi-Dharwad getting eight applications each, while Bengaluru district received seven, and Bidar six. While the minority community is said to be electorally strong in 20 odd constituencies, while in the rest, Muslim votes are a decisive factor for any candidate’s victory.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee General Secretary Mehroz Khan, who is working with the Forum for Minorities Rights, Democratic and Political Empowerment, said the focus is now on creating voting awareness in the community. He cited the example of some polling booths in Aland constituency in Kalaburagi district where the Congress candidate lost by 697 votes in the 2018 elections. In 10 Muslim-dominated booths having 3,845 votes, no Muslim had cast their votes.  “The forum is creating awareness for the Muslims. All we want is for more number of Muslims and secular minded candidates to win,” he added.

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This story first appeared in National Herald

Disappointed with government’s new diktat allowing the national flag to be made of polyester and in varying dimensions, the women continue to weave the Tiranga in khadi and hope for better days

For six months every year the 1,200 women employed by the Karnataka Khadi Gramodyog Samyukta Sangha (KKGSS) at Bengeri village in Dharwad wove the national flag with khadi for Independence Day. Over the next six months they would weave the flag for the Republic Day on January 26.

The central government changed the Flag Code in December 2021 and allowed textile mills to use polyester and various machine-made fabrics to manufacture national flags. With this, orders are flooding to the mills in Surat in Gujarat.

The Union and state governments, PSUs and government agencies are expected to buy more national flags this year to mark the 75th anniversary of Independence. The government’s ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign is also giving a major push to flag makers this year.

With the amendment to the flag code, polyester and machine- made flags will be available on e-commerce platforms for as little as Rs 38 against the khadi hand-spun flags which are more expensive with prices starting from Rs 380 and going up to Rs 2,000 per flag.

Till this year the KKGSS unit at Bengeri was the sole agency to make hand-woven national flags with khadi for the government.

After two years of pandemic, when manufacture of khadi flags had slowed down, KKGSS was hopeful of higher orders in anticipation of the ‘Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations to mark the75th year of India’s Independence. With the government’s announcement of hoisting the national flag one very house, the body speculated a spurt in demand and stocked khadi worth Rs 5 crore. But so far it has got orders that would utilise khadi worth Rs 1.20 crore only.

Under the campaign, the government has prescribed the flag size that can be hoisted (20X30 inches and 16×27 inches), which is not permitted under the Bureau of Indian Standards, which oversees the manufacture of flags by KKGSS.

The Congress in Karnataka has come to the aid of the KKGSS employees. ‘Let’s Spin’, a campaign to ensure that more khadi flags are used by people has been started by Congress block president of Vidyanagar in Hubballi, Rajat V Ullagaddimath from July 1. Writers, litterateurs, the Congress state unit and the seer of Moorusavari Mutt in Hubballi have extended support to the campaign, he informs.

Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi, who is due to visit Davanagere on August 3 for the 75th birthday celebrations of former chief minister Siddaramaiah is expected to drive down to Bengeri village which is 152 km from there.

Ullagaddimath points to the hazards of polyester and says that while khadi happens to be biodegradable, polyester would damage the soil. Torn and tattered flags, he points out, are prescribed to be disposed of by burning. And while in denial of Mahatma Gandhi’s injunction in favour of khadi, the government is also ensuring that the soil would be damaged, he complains.

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