BJP playing politics over Dharmasthala issue, says Karnataka CM

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday alleged that the BJP was playing politics over the Dharmasthala issue.

Fielding queries from reporters in Mysuru, Mr. Siddaramaiah described the Dharmasthala chalo rally of the BJP as a “political yatra”.

Even though the Special Investigation Team (SIT) was conducting an independent investigation in the matter to bring out the truth, why is the BJP demanding a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), he asked, before questioning if the saffron party did not have faith in the local police.

He said the BJP did not seek a probe by the NIA when the SIT was formed. Only after the bodies were not found, they began insisting for a probe by the Central agency, Mr. Siddaramaiah said.

The Chief Minister recalled that the pattadhikari of Dharmasthala D. Veerendra Heggade had welcomed the constitution of SIT so that the truth came out. Hence, the SIT is conducting a probe independently. The State government had given the investigation a free hand so that the truth comes out, he said.

With regard to the BJP’s demand for reinvestigation of the Soujanya case, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the CBI had conducted a probe and submitted the report. But the saffron party was now prodding the family of Soujanya to move the Supreme Court.

Pointing out that the allegations in the Soujanya case were against Mr. Heggade, Mr. Siddaramaiah wondered on whose side the BJP was. “On one side, they shout slogans in favour of Mr. Heggade and on the other they are provoking Soujanya’s family,” he said, seeking to emphasise that the BJP was only playing politics in the matter.

However, Mr. Siddaramaiah said it was up to Soujanya’s family to move the Supreme Court if a re-investigation was required.

When his attention was drawn to a complaint before the SIT by a woman who said that she had witnessed the abduction of Soujanya, Mr. Siddaramaiah wondered why she did not bring the matter before the CBI probe. “If anyone knows the truth and hides it, then it is also a crime,” he said.

Replying to the reported demand by BJP leaders that Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq come for the inauguration of Dasara wearing vermilion and turmeric on her forehead, Mr. Siddaramaiah said it was inappropriate to insist people belonging to other faiths to come to the ‘Nada Habba’ wearing vermilion and turmeric on their foreheads and as Hindus.

He pointed out that Ms. Mushtaq, who had won the Booker Prize for her stories, belongs to the Muslim community. “Is wearing arshina and kumkum part of their religion?,” he asked.

Mr. Siddaramaiah also said that the erstwhile Maharaja of Mysore had once taken the then Diwan Mirza Ismail in the royal howdah during a Dasara procession. “Where were the RSS and BJP then?,” he asked.

The Chief Minister also recalled that writer K.S. Nissar Ahmed had inaugurated the Dasara festival in 2017.

He said Ms. Mushtaq had written her stories in Kannada and wondered whether anyone can write in Kannada without having admiration, pride and love for the language.

To another question on Muslim clerics issuing a fatwa against Ms. Mushtaq, Mr. Siddaramaiah clarified that the Muslim religious leaders had themselves clarified that there was no such fatwa against her.