http://www.openthemagazine.com 51the golden beaches of southern
Karnataka, the wind and the
waves are often merciless and
insurmountable. But some men,
they love the swim. We are at the
office, in Mangaluru, of one such
intrepid adventurer. Jagadeesh
K Shenava, advocate and Dak-
shina Kannada district president
of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), is at home in the foaming
communal waters. The armed policemen guarding him 24x7
must have broken a sweat at his latest speech on January 28th en-
dorsing retaliatory murders of Muslims by Hindus, but the lawyer
is unflappable. “There was an attempt on my life seven years ago.
I regularly get threat calls. But that’s Mangaluru. Nowhere else in
India are there so many people willing to give up their lives for
Hindutva,” he says. “There are two main issues here: cow killings
and love jihad. We cannot let either slide.”
Indeed, in the communally sensitive districts of Karnataka,
including Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Shi-
moga, the BJP’s campaign for the Assembly polls this year hinges
on Hindutva issues. In Dakshina Kannada, Hindus make up
around 67 per cent of the population, Muslims 25 per cent and
Christians 8 per cent. According to data compiled by the People’s
Union for Civil Liberties, there were 911 cases of communal vio-
lence in the district between 2005 and 2015. And with the BJP
targeting 150 of the state’s 224 Assembly seats, the district could
spin out of control. On January 3rd, Bajrang Dal activist Deepak
Rao was slain in Katipalla near Mangaluru, sparking a horrifying
act of retaliation: Abdul Basheer, who had nothing to do with the
incident, was murdered in Kottara, Mangaluru, to avenge Rao.
Shobha Karandlaje, the BJP MP from neighbouring Udupi, has
claimed that Rao’s death is the 21st communal murder in the state
in recent times, and the twelfth “committed by jihadis who have
the support of the Congress government”. The Siddaramaiah
government has contested this, but what it will find difficult to
contest is the Hindutva osmosis in Mangaluru, where the typical
Hindu seems inclined to normalise moralistic oppression.
“Some years ago, each time a Hindu girl was taken by a Muslim,
we had to shout out to be heard. Today, the narrative has changed
and the media itself calls it ‘love jihad’. Even the courts admit it
is a clear and present danger. Parents who wouldn’t accept our
advice earlier now seek us out. Our task has become a lot easier,”
says Sharan ‘Pumpwell’ Kumar, 42, convenor of the Bajrang Dal
in south Karnataka. Pumpwell in Mangaluru is the power centre
At
“Some years ago, each time a Hindu girl was
taken by a Muslim, we had to shout out to
be heard. Today, the narrative has changed
and the media itself calls it ‘love jihad’”
Sharan ‘pumpwell’ Kumar (in orange shirt, outside his
office in Pumpwell) convenor, Bajrang Dal, south Karnataka