Siddu’s Hindutva barbs worry Cong MLAs; seek Surjewala intervention?

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Worried over the repeated attacks on Hindutva and some pro-Hindutva leaders by Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah, a few leaders have reportedly asked AICC General Secretary & InCharge of Karnataka Affairs Randeep Singh Surjewala to ask the former CM to tone down his criticism.

Siddaramaiah and KPCC president DK Shivakumar had committed a mistake in 2018 by picking up the Veerashaiva/Lingayat religion tag issue which ultimately backfired on the Congress in that election. Shivakumar even openly tendered an unconditional apology on behalf of his party for trying to divide the Lingayats/Veerashaivas.

The then opposition party, the BJP made it an election plank and attacked the Congress Party for trying to divide the community In fact Shivakumar has been going soft on the issue of Hindutva and had taken former AICC President Rahul Gandhi to the Chitradurga Murugha Mutt and got him ‘Lingadiksha’, before attending the 75th birthday function of Siddaramaiah in Davangere. Besides, Rahul was taken to several temples to send out a message that the Congress is not anti-Hindu.

But SIddaramaiah’s criticism of HIndutva has left prospective Congress candidates of coastal Karnataka worried.They feel it would encourage people to brand the Congress as anti-Hindu and impact their poll prospects.The ruling BJP on the other hand wants the Congress to make such mistakes so that they can claim to be champion of Hindus.