Days after the Congress released its manifesto for Karnataka elections 2023, hinting at a PFI-like ban on the Bajrang Dal, the state’s former home minister and current working president of Karnataka Congress Ramalinga Reddy told News18 that the state government does not hold the power to ban any organization, but can send a recommendation to the Centre.
Reddy is the second Congress leader after former Union law minister M Veerappa Moily to clarify that the state government cannot actually ban any organisation. While Moily had said that the manifesto mention was a “warning to Bajrang Dal so that they play by the rulebook”, Reddy said the Congress, if it comes to power, can “at least send a recommendation to the Centre”.
Calling the Bajrang Dal a “dominant force” in Dakshina Kannada, Reddy said: “The Bajrang Dal and PFI are similar kinds of forces with all sorts of fundamental ideas. They are involved in so many hate crime incidents in the region. We have prepared cases and reports. Bajrang Dal members were involved in killing of at least eight to nine SDPI members in the region and PFI members were also accused of killing over half a dozen Bajrang Dal members. This has been a never ending conflict in the area.”
“The state government cannot ban any organization or issue any restraining order. But if the Congress comes to power, we can at least make a case and send recommendation for a ban on Bajrang Dal to the Centre. We are accountable to the people and we will be able to tell them that we tried. We will put things on record,” Reddy added.
The controversy has raged on since the Congress released its manifesto, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying in his Hosepet campaign speech that the grand old party “wants to lock up Bahrangbali”. At a public meeting in Dakshina Kannada, the PM also chanted ‘Bajrangbali ki Jai’.
Coastal Karnataka: The Problem Zone
In September, two months after a series of three murders, the Union Home Ministry banned the Popular Front of India.
Located around 300km from Bengaluru, Dakshina Kannada had long been reeling under a spate of hate crimes and communal clashes. However, the killing of 34-year-old Praveen Nettaru, a BJP youth member, set the ball rolling for the ban. Nettaru’s murder was linked to two more retaliatory murders in the area. In the last week of July 2022, three youths, including Nettaru, were murdered in the district.
During the course of the investigation, police arrested over a dozen men, including Bajrang Dal members. The Nettaru murder case was later handed over to the NIA, and in March, the central investigating agency arrested the prime accused, a member of the PFI.
The conflict between the Bajrang Dal and the PFI has wedged a sharp religious divide in the region.
The Karnataka Police crime record, last published in 2022, stated that the Dakshina Kannada district saw 32 murders and 76 incidents of rioting between 2019 and 2021. The official records did not mention the nature of these incidents, but Karnataka Police sources claim that most were communal in nature.
A total of 4,618 cases of offences against public tranquillity were registered under various sections of IPC during 2021, out of which rioting (4,193 cases) accounted for 90.79%.
The BJP is believed to be a dominant force in the region. In the 2018 Karnataka elections, the BJP won 17 out of 19 seats in coastal Karnataka (which includes Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, and Uttara Kannada).
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