Vote bank politics stoking communal trouble: Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike

Mangaluru: With the assembly elections approaching, communal trouble has been rising in the coastal districts of the state. While both the Congress and BJP hold each other responsible, a voluntary group fighting communal forces here, blames the votebank politics of both parties for emboldening troublemakers to ignite passions and violence.

If the BJP withdrew cases against saffron activists when in power in the state, in 2015 the Congress too dropped cases against several Popular Front of India (PFI) activists, recalls Mr Suresh Bhat, president of the Dakshina Kannada unit of the Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike (KKSV).

"Withdrawal of cases is nothing but vote -bank politics and both political parties indulge in it ,” he argues. Although the BJP is always seen as the communal party, Mr Bhat regrets that nothing much has changed since the Congress came to power. “Goons still openly create communal tension, beat up cattle transporters and indulge in moral policing by assaulting girls and boys belonging to different communities found together at malls or in parties. The Congress could have brought in a change as soon as it was voted to power in 2013, but the largest number of communal incidents over the last seven years took place in 2015,” he says. Going by data compiled by the Vedike, while 104 communal incidents were recorded in the region in 2016, 2017 saw 125 such cases. Of these, 17 cases were of Hindu vigilantism and five of Muslim vigilantism.

The largest number of communal incidents in the seven years was in 2015 when 228 such incidents were recorded. In comparison there were 173 communal incidents in 2014, and 132 in 2012.

“In the new year a moral policing case has already been reported at Pilikula Water Park, where Hindu vigilante groups assaulted a Hindu girl for being with a Muslim boy,” Mr Bhat notes, adding that the police finds it hard to act impartially owing to political pressure.