Chief minister Siddaramaiah with his supporters in Karwar.

KARWAR: The BJP , openly playing the Hindutva card in Uttara Kannada district, has forced chief minister Siddaramaiah and his cabinet colleagues to toe a soft Hindutva line at public meetings in the district.

Siddaramaiah, who is on a two-day official tour of the district, claimed to be a “real Hindu” at almost all the meetings held here on Wednesday and Thursday. “Some leaders like Ananth Kumar Hegde are always trying to divide people on religious lines. They accuse us of being anti-Hindu. Are we not Hindus? My name is Siddarama. My name too has Bhagwan Ram’s name. We are the devotees of Lord Rama and Hanuman. We are the followers of Basavanna and Buddha. We never prevented them from celebrating any festival. The real Hindu is one who loves all religions. You judge who the real Hindus are. Us or BJP leaders?” he asked.

His speech comes in the wake of a Hindutva resurgence in the BJP, and Union minister and Uttara Kannada MP Ananth Kumar Hegde being projected as a Hindutva icon during the Parivartana Yatre, organized by party state president B S Yeddyurappa two weeks ago. Hegde had criticized Siddaramaiah as an anti-Hindu politician who was trying to curb the rights of Hindus. The government’s decision to celebrate Tipu Jayanti was the main reason behind the MP’s criticism. He compared Congress rule to that by Mughal king Aurangzeb and Alauddin Khilji.

BJP had held rallies in Bhatkal, Kumta, Ankola, Sirsi and Mundgod. The Congress, which is aware that the communal situation in the coastal areas of the district is volatile and voters of the majority community will be swayed by the provocative speeches of Hegde, held rallies in the same place where BJP had its programmes. PWD minister H C Mahadevappa too called himself a devout Hindu who believes in the ‘live and let live’ theory. Referring to the Hunsur incident, both Siddaramaiah and Mahadevappa lashed out at Mysuru MP Pratap Simha and Hegde for trying to whip up communal frenzy in the state.

Then it was the turn of medium and large scale industries minister R V Deshpande to call himself a devout Hindu. “By birth, I am a Hindu. All other people are my bandhu (dear ones),” he said in Karwar. “The Congress is trying to control the damage caused by the BJP’s misinformation campaign by playing the soft Hindu card,” said a leader.

