An extremely religious HD Kumaraswamy reached the steps of the Gokarna Mahabaleshwar temple, only to be stopped and confronted by Narasimha Dixit, the priest of the Ganapathi temple, on his recent remarks about Brahmins.
The former chief minister tried clarifying that his statement was being misconstrued and had nothing to do with the local Brahmin community, and that he was only targeting the Peshwas of Maharashtra and BJP MP Prahlad Joshi. The priest, who claimed to be speaking on behalf of the Brahmin community, expressed disappointment over Kumaraswamy’s “anti-Brahmin” statement.
In a controversial statement last week, Kumaraswamy said he had inside information that the RSS is planning to make Union minister and Dharwad Lok Sabha MP Prahlad Joshi – a Brahmin – Karnataka’s next Chief Minister. This comment raised several eyebrows and also raked up a major political controversy as it was made out to be a statement that could polarise voters along caste lines.
Vishwaprasanna Theertha Swami of the Udupi Pejavar Mutt and a representative of the Brahmin community called the JD-S leader’s comment a “ploy” that has been used time and again to gain political mileage. He said comments against Brahmins often gain ground during elections and “the community which is in minority is unable to speak up” as they don’t have adequate electoral strength or representation.
Let’s be clear. Kumaraswamy’s Brahmin comment was not a slip of the tongue. It was carefully planned with the aim of splitting the Lingayat vote by claiming the BJP would put up a Brahmin as the next CM instead of a Lingayat as has been the case for several decades.
A BJP insider said that with this comment, the JD-S leader has sowed seeds of doubt even in the minds of staunch BJP voters.
In a state like Karnataka, where parties aim for delicate balance in maintaining caste equations to win elections, the strategy to project Joshi’s caste certainly created much-needed buzz amongst dominant caste groups like the Lingayats and Vokkaligas and other communities that fall in the SC/ST and OBC categories.
Kumaraswamy has nothing to lose by that statement as the hold of the JD-S is in the Old Mysore region where there is almost no presence of Brahmins. His statement has caused more harm to the BJP, which was his calculated move and intent.
“The RSS is thinking of making Prahlad Joshi the next CM once the elections are over. The reason behind this is that Joshi does not represent South Indian Brahmin traditions. There are two or three different types of Brahmins and he (Joshi) belongs to the Peshwa community and destroyed the idol at the Sringeri Mutt. He is not a Brahmin from the Old region of Karnataka but the RSS has already decided on making him the CM,” Kumaraswamy had said.
Kumaraswamy’s comment was retaliatory. He targeted Joshi for his comment that the JD-S placed the interest of the Deve Gowda family first before taking any political decision.
Joshi’s remarks were made in the backdrop of Bhavani Revanna, Kumaraswamy’s sister-in-law and wife of JDS MLA HD Revanna, making a unilateral announcement that she will be the party’s candidate from the Hassan Assembly seat. Kumaraswamy dismissed her announcement as “unnecessary”. He has also kept pending for weeks now the announcement of the second list of JD-S candidates, which includes the Hassan seat.
Under attack for his remark, Kumaraswamy has been in clarification mode for the last few days, but none of his follow-up statements seem to have appeased or quietened the agitated community. Calling the JD-S the “protectors of the religion”, the former CM highlighted that it was during his term that he had granted land for a Brahmin community hall and released Rs 25 crore for the Brahmins’ Development Authority.
“I hold Brahmins in high regard. I support those who believe in the principle of ‘Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavantu‘. Ours is not Savarkar’s culture,” he told the media as soon as the backlash began hurting his and the JD-S’s image. He claimed that the JD-S was the only party that took people from all communities along. He also invoked his father JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda’s contribution to Brahmins in Karnataka politics.
He went on to say that it was Deve Gowda who made a Brahmin, Ramakrishna Hegde, the CM of Karnataka in 1983. Karnataka has had only two Brahmin CMs till date — R Gundurao of the Congress whose term spanned from 1980 to 1983 and Ramakrishna Hegde of the Janata Party who ruled for five years between 1983 to 1988.
Reactions from BJP leaders came in quick and hot with CM Basvaraj Bommai stating that people should not give credence to such statements. He said leaders, especially those who have been in the CM’s chair, should desist from making such comments.
While there have been scattered protests across the state over the comment, Kumaraswamy’s surgical strike on the BJP seems to have hit home hard.
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