Opinion - News Analysis   

Coalition dharma in Karnataka

Parvathi Menon

What is it that cements the alliance between the Janata Dal (Secular) and the BJP?

WHEN HE assumed leadership of the JD(S)-BJP coalition in February 2006, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said that the new alliance would be cemented not by a common ideology but a common vision of economic development for Karnataka. "By praying to this secular ideology every day, we cannot uplift the poor masses," he told a national magazine soon after becoming the Chief Minister. Seven months into the alliance, the secular credentials of the Janata Dal (Secular) appear to be on test. Two recent controversies have brought into focus the ideological strains between the partners.

The first is the demand by the BJP that the Government should allow the Shobha Yatra at the Bababudangiri shrine in Chikmagalur to be held this year. This is a ritual the sangh parivar has tried to popularise on the occasion of the Urs function held each December at the famous sufi shrine of Bababudangiri in Chikmagalur district. The last government adhered to a Supreme Court order to maintain the pre-1975 status quo and did not allow either the Shobha Yatra or any religious rites to be held at the shrine in 2004 and 2005.

The second controversy relates to the provocative statement made by none other than the Minister of Higher Education, D.H. Shankaramurthy of the BJP. The Minister, a staunch RSS follower, said Karnataka's historical icon, the 18th century ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, was "anti-Kannada," because he used Persian and not Kannada as the language of administration.

Unfazed by the uproar caused by his comments, he went on to say that some words of Persian origin should be removed from legal documents.

The conflict over the forms of worship at the Bababudangiri shrine, a fine symbol of composite worship, threatens each year to become a flashpoint for communal violence. The law-and-order approach to the problem adopted by the last few State governments, of enforcing a ban on any religious ceremony, Hindu or Muslim, at the shrine during the Urs festival in December had, if nothing else, kept the peace in the region. There are conflicting signals from this government on how it proposes to deal with this important question.

Home Minister M.P. Prakash has said that the Shobha Yatra would not be allowed, even as senior BJP Ministers insist that no decision will be taken until the matter is discussed between the parties in a coordination committee meeting.

These statements on Tipu Sultan are significant as they come from the Minister of Higher Education. Mr. Shankaramurthy's comments, which have been criticised widely in the State, echo the position of that section of historians which diminishes the historical role of Tipu Sultan from that of a far-sighted ruler who fought British colonialism to a narrow-minded religious bigot.

The pressure on the JD(S) to accommodate views that it does not agree with in the interests of coalition stability may explain its silence on this matter.

Mr. Kumaraswamy recently offered an unconditional and heartfelt apology to a gathering of Muslim religious leaders for certain disparaging statements on Madarsas that had been attributed to him in the media. It seems that in their individual capacity JD(S) leaders are at pains to establish their secular credentials — but in government reluctant to take on their allies even over an issue that threatens these credentials. What then is the coalition dharma that cements this alliance?

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Not by judicial fiat alone
Man in a hurry
An open letter to American Senators
Coalition dharma in Karnataka
Admission strengthens Budapest's hand
Towards efficiency in doing good
Threat is from those who accept climate change
Corrections and clarifications
Shocking
The Thai crisis
Haj subsidy
Inter-caste marriages
Clarification

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu