- Tuesday, March 11, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE southern Indian state of Karnataka is witnessing a flare-up of communal tension in the wake of murder of three youths in the coastal district of Dakshina Kannada. These were preceded by the row over wearing hijab by girls from the minority Muslim community, call for boycotting Muslim traders and the murder of an activist of the Hindu right-wing Bajrang Dal in the state.
The pressure is growing on Karnataka’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and he recently warned about using the “Yogi (Adityanath) model” against “communal forces” after protests over the killing of a party worker became strong. One of the state’s top ministers even said that Karnataka could go “five steps ahead of Uttar Pradesh” and carry out “encounters” targeting the accused.
Adityanath is the chief minister of the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and is known for his no-nonsense image when it comes to tackling communal tensions in the state. His government is even accused of unlawfully demolishing houses of people from the minority community who have been accused of disturbing law and order situation in the state.
“They will be arrested but it’s the wish of our workers and people that such incidents shouldn’t happen. According to their wish there will be action, culprits will be nabbed, they will be nabbed. Whether that is going to be encounter, we will go five steps ahead of UP. We will give better model than UP. Karnataka is a progressive state and model state, we don’t need to follow anyone,” Ashwath Narayan, Karnataka’s higher education minister was quoted as saying by NDTV.
The state government has come under intense pressure after Praveen Nettaru, a youth leader of the ruling party, was hacked to death on Tuesday (26) while he was shutting his poultry shop in the district of Dakshina Kannada. He was murdered reportedly for condemning the beheading of a Hindu tailor in Udaipur in the northern state of Rajasthan last month by two self-radicalised Muslim men for speaking in favour of suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma who made controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad.
Responding to a barrage of questions in the wake of the murder accusing the government of failing to protect Hindu workers, chief minister Bommai spoke about Karnataka following the Uttar Pradesh model.
Besides Nettare, two other youths have been brutally killed in the state this month. One of them was B Masood, 18, who was fatally attacked by eight people in a road-rage case, also in Dakshina Kannada, on July 20. He died the next day.4
Also, Fazil Mangalpet, 23, was hacked to death by a gang of miscreants in front of a cloth shop in Surathkal in the same district on Thursday (28). CCTV footage of the murder went viral, putting the authorities under more stress to tackle what many feel is a spreading communal tension.
Sources have said that all the three murders were linked to revenge killing. Indo-Asian News Service reported citing the police that Masood’s murder triggered the killing of Nettare as he the latter allegedly helped those accused in Masood’s killing.
The BJP government of the state has also been accused of being partial. Bommai, who cancelled the celebration for completing one year in office, visited Nettare’s family after his murder and also issued a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to his family. The ruling party also gave Rs 25 lakh separately.
However, he did not visit the family of Masood, who lived just a few kilometres away from Nettare’s residence. Even though the chief minister stressed that each life was important, this gesture did not go down well with many. Masood’s family was yet to receive any compensation for his murder, the IANS report added.
Former Karnataka minister UT Khader, who is currently a state lawmaker from the opposition Indian National Congress, said he did not trust in the ruling BJP government. “The government should act and uphold justice in an unbiased way. The culprits should be arrested and punished. Peace has to be established in Mangaluru region,” he said, adding, “The murder of Fazil took place when CM Bommai visited Mangaluru. When there is no trust in the government, people take law into their hands.”
Khader also underlined that CM Bommai did not visit Masood’s family.
Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) district president Abubakkar Kulai blamed the Hindu right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the BJP for the killings. Reacting on Fazil’s murder, he said, “An innocent has been killed by men with the background of RSS. The BJP government is ruling over the dead bodies.”
He alleged that political forces were behind the murders. He said three murders took place in Dakshina Kannada district but no one raised their voice on the murder of Masood and the chief minister paid visit only to Nettare’s family.
Meanwhile, Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner KV Rajendra on Friday (29) directed local urban and rural administrative bodies to ensure that all local shops were shut till Monday (1) starting 6 pm local time on Friday. Emergency services such as hospitals and medical shops were exempted.
