‘Who are you to ask?’ Siddaramaiah’s supporters take BJP on over meat row

It’s not the first time Siddaramaiah finds himself the target of a campaign branding him “anti-Hindu”. This time, the allegations started soon after his tour on Sunday of rain-hit Kodagu, where he visited a temple following lunch at a Congress MLA’s home. A reporter accosted him to ask whether he had consumed non-vegetarian food ahead of the temple visit. Siddaramaiah replied: “Nee yaaru kelakke?”

And went on to add: “I am a non-vegetarian. So I eat meat. If you are a vegetarian, you will not. Your habits are yours and my habits are mine. Has God told anyone that they should not eat meat before visiting a temple?”

On Monday, BJP leaders, including party Karnataka president Nalin Kumar Kateel, took up the matter, saying the former Congress chief minister had no respect for the sentiments of Hindus as he went to temples after eating non-vegetarian food. “By asking what is wrong with eating meat in the afternoon and visiting a temple in the evening, Siddaramaiah has once again shown utter disregard for the beliefs of Hindus. The people will give a fitting reply to those who do not understand the religious sentiments that Hindus have towards temples,” Kateel said.

BJP MP Prathap Simha, who started the row, said Siddaramaiah had offered floral tributes to Goddess Chamundeshwari during Dasara festivities in 2017 after having non-vegetarian food.

BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal asked if the Congress leader would dare to go to a mosque after eating pork – prompting Siddaramaiah to point out that he eats neither pork nor beef.

The BJP, trying to project Siddaramaiah as not a practising Hindu but one who visits temples only when elections are around the corner, sees it as an opportunity to bounce back from a recent textbook uproar. The party has been on the back foot for several months for allegedly showing disrespect to local icons in the revision of school textbooks.

As the BJP pushed the matter online, a counter social-media campaign was started by Siddaramaiah’s supporters, around “Nee Yaaru Kelakke”, taking off from his caustic response. Many questioned the imposition of food habits on the public.

On Tuesday, close Siddaramaiah’s supporters H M Revanna (a former MLC) and V S Ugrappa (an ex-MP), came to his defence, saying that if the BJP and RSS have the guts, they should declare that they don’t want votes of those who eat non-vegetarian food. Eighty percent of Indians are meat eaters, they said.

“This is being done because the Congress has decided to be aggressive and take on the BJP government for its failures, including the poor handling of relief in rain-affected regions. Eggs were thrown at Siddaramaiah when he visited Kodagu to divert attention,” a Congress leader who organised protests in favour of the former CM said.

Siddaramaiah eventually issued a clarification, saying he had not consumed any non-vegetarian food before his temple visit Sunday, but added that there was no link between the two.

With cultural and religious practices varying across regions and communities in Karnataka, the furore over consumption of meat before visiting temples is a forced controversy, his supporters point out.

Siddaramaiah comes from a backward class sheep-rearing community of Siddaramanahundi in Mysuru district. For people in these areas, the main temple is the Male Mahadeshwara temple located on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border. People walk hundreds of kilometers to reach the temple and consume non-vegetarian food on the way and also offer animal sacrifices.

Siddaramaiah supporters say the BJP is rattled following the huge celebrations for his 75th birthday recently, which drew over five lakh people, underlining his popularity among backward classes and minorities.

Siddaramaiah’s son and Congress MLA Yathindra said: “The BJP is raising unnecessary and trivial issues to cover up its failures. It is unfortunate that the media is also questioning the food habits of individuals. ”

In 2017 too, the BJP had targeted Siddaramaiah, then the sitting CM, over his visit to Dharmasthala’s Manjunatha Swamy Temple, reportedly after consuming fish. Then BJP MLA Aravind Limbavali had compared the same to PM Narendra Modi, who had also visited the temple, saying: “Our prime minister works for 18 hours a day. He left for the temple early in the morning and remained on an empty stomach till he had the darshan of Lord Manjunatha Swamy. That is the difference between Modi and Siddaramaiah.”

Dismissing the criticism, Siddaramaiah had asked the CM which god had issued a fiat against consuming meat.

Again, in 2018, during the Assembly elections, the BJP and affiliates had tried to project Siddaramaiah as “anti Hindu”.

The current controversy comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Karnataka in September, when he is likely to attend public events in the communally sensitive Dakshina Kannada. The area has been simmering since the hijab row and back-to-back communal killings. The BJP has also been raising heat in the state over an Eidgah dispute in Bengaluru, and has now placed Veer Savarkar at the heart of its poll campaign.

Barring Siddaramaiah’s supporters, the Congress has largely kept silent on the issue.

However, support has come for him from one unexpected quarter: Hindutva hero and Sri Rama Sene head Pramod Muthalik, who has clashed with Siddaramaiah several times earlier. Muthalik said there was “nothing wrong in consuming non-vegetarian food and visiting temples”. “BJP leaders must discuss Veer Savarkar instead of raking up such issues,” he said.