On December 29, 2023, Shrikanth Pujari, an autorickshaw driver, was arrested in connection with the violence that followed the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992. Angry about the arrest, which was made just over a month before the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Hindutva organisations such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad launched a campaign against the arrest of a “Ram Bhakt” and “kar sevak”. The Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, R. Ashok, accused the Congress government of indulging in “appeasement politics” by reviving a three-decades-old case pertaining to the Ram Janmabhoomi agitations. The protesting groups refused to buy the explanation of the police that Mr. Pujari’s arrest was part of a routine procedure to clear long-pending cases. Instead, they asked, why now? They alleged that the arrest was a targeted attack on “Ram Bhakts” to dissuade them from being part of the inauguration at Ayodhya and the local activities planned ahead of it.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took to X to release a list of 16 cases against Mr. Pujari involving the sale of illicit liquor, gambling, and rioting. Justifying the arrest, the Chief Minister also released a list of 36 people arrested in connection with 26 other long-pending cases in the Hubballi-Dharwad commissionerate limits. He said that the BJP was getting “exposed” by defending a criminal who was “using religion as a shield.” Local Congress MLA (Hubballi-Dharwad East) Prasad Abbayya accused the BJP of “standing in support of a history-sheeter” and trying to build a Hindu-Muslim narrative out of an arrest which had followed the normal procedure of law.
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However, the BJP continued to escalate the issue by holding an agitation at Hubballi and across the State on January 3. Mr. Ashok and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Arvind Bellad, courted arrest in Hubballi. There were similar arrests across Karnataka. The same day, Ayodhya, too, witnessed protests over the issue. Leading a demonstration, Peethadheeshwar Jagadguru Paramhans Acharya of Tapaswi Camp in Ayodhya burnt the effigy of Siddaramaiah and demanded imposition of President’s rule in Karnataka. Accusing the Siddaramaiah-led government of falsely implicating 300 kar sevaks for their alleged involvement in the Babri Masjid demolition, he even warned that the saints of Ayodhya would march to Karnataka.
The local BJP unit in the State followed this up with a campaign. Many BJP leaders posted pictures on social media holding placards that read “I am Ram Bhakt, arrest me too” in an attempt to portray the Congress government as “anti-Hindu.” Meanwhile, a press conference held in Hubballi by Dharmadas, another accused in the same case of 1992 rioting, where he asked why no BJP leader had bothered to look into their grievances all these years, hardly caught any attention.
As of now, the ruling disposition in Karnataka has strongly defended the action taken against a “habitual offender” and has not heeded the demand for suspension of the police inspector who arrested Mr. Pujari. But these defences have not prevented the police inspector in question from suddenly going on leave “to attend to his ailing father.”
After taking the issue to a crescendo and also threatening to continue their agitation, BJP leaders went silent following the release of Mr. Pujari, who was granted bail by a court in Hubballi on January 5. Mr. Pujari announced that he will be going to Ayodhya to attend the inauguration of the Ram Mandir on January 22 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A local BJP functionary said that the party cadres had “not been intimated” about any further agitations.
While this incident has died down, it is clear that the BJP will seize any such opportunity in the run-up the Lok Sabha elections. Meanwhile, the Karnataka government has announced that all Muzrai temples in the State will conduct a special pooja on January 22. Muzrai temples have also been asked to perform a maha mangalarathi (great worship ceremony) between 12.29 p.m. and 12.30 p.m., the time when the idol of Lord Rama will be installed at the temple in Ayodhya. When asked about his government’s decision, even as Congress leaders in Delhi are yet to take a call on attending the event, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said, “Ultimately we all are Hindus.”
