Arun Dev / Hindustan Times
Two right-wing outfits — Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) and Sri Rama Sene (SRS) — seem to be at the forefront of the recent communal tensions reported over the past month. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has however distanced itself from these outfits.
While it was the HJS than began the campaign against halal meat and demanded a boycott of Muslim fruit vendors, it was the SRS that took a cue from the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS) and called for a ban of loudspeakers in mosques across the state. On April 8, members of SRS attacked the Muslim watermelon vendor and publicly destroyed his stock.
Even though these two organisations come under the larger umbrella of right-wing organisations, they consider themselves out of the Sangh Parivar.
Senior BJP leader and Karnataka MLC AH Vishwanath hit out at Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik for raking up communally sensitive issues in the state and reminded him that the government does not belong to the RSS or the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
In a press conference in Mysuru on Monday, Vishwanath said, “Who is Muthalik to dictate terms to the government and issue communally sensitive statements? It is a tragedy that the state government is not able to take action against such people. The government does not belong to the RSS or the VHP.” He added that the “government’s inaction will send wrong signals to the people.”
The actions of these two organisations are not limited to boycott calls. Members of both organisations have been involved in murder conspiracies.
All accused arrested for the murder of activist and journalist Gauri Lankesh were members of either the HJS or Sri Rama Sene, according to police. According to the charge sheet filed by the special investigation team (SIT) that probed the case, Amol Kale, the mastermind behind the murder, was a former convenor of the HJS. The SIT said that Lankesh, writer MM Kalburgi and others were on the list prepared by the Kale for execution because of their opposition to radical Hindutva and superstitious practices.
For the murder of the Gauri Lankesh, police said, Kale had recruited a member of SRS – Parashuram Waghmore. After months of indoctrination and weapons training, it was Waghmore who shot Lankesh in front of her Bengaluru home on September 5, 2017, police added. The charge sheet against him read that it was his activities in SRS that led to Kale recruiting him. However, SRS had denied its role in the Lankesh murder.
On 1 January 2012, Waghmore and five others from SRS hoisted a Pakistan flag in front of the tehsildar’s office in Sindagi town in Vijayapura district. Alleging that the flag was hoisted by the Muslim community in the town, Waghmore and others held a protest in the town intending to create communal tensions, the police claimed. But before the situation went out of control, police arrested Waghmore.
“During the questioning, all the accused claimed that they had renounced their membership of respective organisations before joining the conspiracy to murder Lankesh. This gave both organisations the ability to deny their involvement in the incident. But the network used for planning, identifying targets, acquiring weapons and other logistical support was strongly associated with these organisations,” said a senior who was part of the Lankesh murder case SIT.
On October 8, 2021, police arrested members of Sri Ram Sene for murdering and decapitating a 24-year-old Muslim man who was in a relationship with a Hindu girl. According to police, the organisation approached the family, offering their services to murder the Muslim youth and dispose of his body.
Taking about SRS, Janata Dal (Secular) chief HD Kumaraswamy on Mondaysaid that the outfit was an insult to Lord Ram. The former chief minister said Sri Ram Sene and different BJP-affiliated outfits were destroying the communal harmony and peaceful atmosphere. “What is the difference between terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir who kill people and these people who are snatching away the livelihood of the poor with vandalism. Those who have done it are neither humans nor Hindus,” he said.
Even though members of both organisations have been booked under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act, which is the state government’s anti-terrorism legislation, BJP leaders continue to support the campaigns called by both organisations.
“There are ideological issues between the Sangh Parivar and these fringe elements. The grudge against BJP governments Maharashtra and Karnataka cracking down on these organisations remains with the fringe organisations like SRS, but both parties understand that they are mutually benefitting,” said Praveen Sarangi, a social activist based in Belagavi.
BJP insiders said that because these fringe organisations help the BJP take forward its Hindutva politics, and because of the unwritten assurance that both organisations will not enter the electoral politics, there are no steps taken to curtail their activities even though there is opposition within the saffron party.
In the first week of April, during his visit to New Delhi, Bommai was reportedly asked by the party high command to concentrate more on governance than raking up controversial issues. As a result of the diktat from the central leadership, the state government has sought to distance itself from these boycott calls from the fringe pro-Hindu organisations.
On returning from New Delhi, Karnataka chief minister Basavaj Bommai said the government would not tolerate if one takes the law into one’s hands or indulges in violence. “There was communication to these organisations to tone down their activities because the party high command was looking at the development closely. But they continued calling for more boycotts. The government is now left with the option of keeping its distances from them,” said a BJP legislator on the condition of anonymity.
Mohan Gowda, the spokesperson for the HJV and Pramod Muthalik, the leaders of SRS are yet to respond to HT’s communications regarding the response to the allegations against them. Emails were sent to them on Wednesday.
This article first appeared on hindustantimes.com