Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President JP Nadda will attend public meetings in Telangana. (BJP/Twitter)
“Urban Naxals are setting foot from above”. “We should warn our children against Urban Naxals who have taken up the task of destroying the country”. “Urban Naxals are trying to enter the state with new appearances.” These are some of the statements Prime Minister Narendra Modi made in poll-bound Gujarat on 10 October.
After a break, the term “urban naxal” has made a comeback in Modi’s public speeches. It seems, it is neither without reason nor limited to Gujarat.
Precisely a week before the prime minister invoked “urban naxals”, another BJP leader in another poll-bound state had spoken of Naxals, Maoists and their sympathisers.
BJP’s Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, Lahar Singh Siroya, shot off a letter to Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Siddaramaiah alleging Naxal and Maoist links to the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
He sought to know if Congressmen helped “Naxal/Maoists” to collect money to run media outlets and demanded a probe into the source of the money.
Were Naxals – Maoists involved in planning Bharat Jodo Yatra Karnataka leg and now a part of the Yatra? I ask 10 questions to Rahul Gandhi & Siddaramiah and urge them provide clarity to the nation and Karnataka. @RahulGandhi @siddaramaiah @BJP4India @BJP4Karnataka pic.twitter.com/OMJ5SJLUIw
— Lahar Singh Siroya (@LaharSingh_MP) October 3, 2022
During the 2018 Assembly poll campaign in Karnataka, corruption was the stick the BJP used to beat the Congress with. Prime Minister Modi himself deemed the then Siddaramaiah government a “10% commission government“. Four years down the line, it is the BJP government led by Basavaraj Bommai that is accused of being a “40% commission government“.
On a weak wicket on the perception of corruption, the BJP, it seems, has devised a new poll plank to complement its Hindutva pitch — the Naxal bait, which has found fertile ground in the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the civil society movements joining hands with the walkathon.
Whether in Gujarat, where it faces anti-incumbency, or in Karnataka, where it is marred by corruption allegations, leaders of the BJP as well as the Congress are confident of hearing the term “Urban Naxal”, “Naxals” often in the run-up to the elections.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Lahar Singh Siroya with Karnataka HM Araga Jnanendra on 6 October. (Supplied)
Lahar Singh Siroya, who enjoys proximity to the party’s central leadership, followed it up with a formal petition to Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra demanding an inquiry into his allegations.
Now, the BJP MP, who is also a member of the consultative committee in the Ministry of Home Affairs under Amit Shah, is all set to escalate the matter.
“There is evidence to show that Naxals have helped plan and participated in the Bharat Jodo Yatra. There are more than 10 such people. I will bring it to the notice of the Union home minister during the consultative committee meeting,” Siroya told South First.
The MP, however, refused to reveal names.
“That is the job of the investigating agencies. I have photographic proofs of meetings that have taken place between Naxal sympathisers and Congress leaders,” Siroya added.
Sources in the intelligence wing of the Karnataka police told South First that Siroya’s allegations have been noted for further inquiry, as is routine.
In his letter, however, Siroya made references to the “death of a famous journalist” and “memorial function for the journalist”.
He was referring to Gauri Lankesh and the Gauri Media Trust that was formed to take Gauri’s journalism forward. Siroya has insinuated that those involved in the Gauri Media Trust have Naxal ties and were helping the Congress with the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Rahul Gandhi walks with slain journalist Gauri Lankesh’s family during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. (Supplied)
“Former Naxals like me have given up armed struggle, but not the fight for civil rights in a democratic manner. Gauri Lankesh Patrike was the voice of the oppressed, downtrodden and neglected. We wanted to save that legacy and came together to form the Gauri Media Trust. Not just former Naxals but freedom fighter HS Doreswamy, activists like Teesta Setalvad were trust members,” Sirimane Nagaraj, associated with a magazine that is published by Gauri Media Trust, told South First.
Nagaraj and Noor Sridhar are among the nine former Naxals who were brought into mainstream due to the efforts of Late HS Doreswamy, Gauri Lankesh, AK Subbaiah, Girish Karnad and others.
“For BJP and RSS’ political prism and opportunism we still look like Naxals. Not just us, whoever is opposing BJP and RSS’ hateful, unjust politics are dubbed urban Naxals. This is for poll purposes,” Nagaraj said, adding that he and his associates in the civil rights movement participated in the Congress yatra to show solidarity with its cause much like many rights groups and activists.
“My mother and I walked with Rahul Gandhi because we agree with the message of peace, harmony that he is spreading through the yatra. According to the BJP, anyone who believes in secular, democratic and constitutional rights is a Naxalite. I am the vice president of Gauri Memorial Trust. I ensure her name is not misused and, so far, it hasn’t been,” Kavitha Lankesh, Gauri’s sister told South First on Lahar Singh’s allegation that Gauri’s name was being misused by vested interests. She participated in the Bharat Jodo Yatra barely days after Lahar Singh’s letter.
Former IAS officer and Karnataka Congress’ War Room chief Sasikanth Senthil, who has been instrumental in ensuring civil society movements’ participation in the Bharat Jodo Yatra’s Karnataka leg, deemed BJP’s allegations “ridiculous”.
Senthil chaired a meeting with civil rights activists, farmer leaders, Dalit rights outfits, writers, researchers clubbed under an umbrella front called “Samajavadi Vedike” on 20 September to gather support for the Bharat Jodo Yatra’s Karnataka leg.
Just one among the many outreach programmes by the Congress ahead of the yatra in Karnataka, the meeting in Gandhi Bhavan came on the BJP’s radar.
“Startled with the success of Bharat Jodo Yatra, the BJP is coming up with weird theories. According to the BJP, even I am a Naxal and I have been in public service for 15 years. As district commissioner I was mandated to bring Left wing extremists to mainstream. Those reformed persons have been working with civil society issues. There is nothing illegal or secretive about it,” Senthil told South First, insisting that the BJP, with investigating agencies at its disposal, should probe the matter if it finds any merit.
“Every civil society movement seeks funding from people because they run on contributions. What is wrong if civil society movements join the yatra?” he asked.
Swaraj India’s Yogendra Yadav is a prominent face of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and his associate Doddipalya Narasimhamurthy is part of Senthil’s team that planned civil society interactions of Rahul Gandhi in Karnataka.
“Narasimhamurthy was arrested for treason in 2019. Those are the kind of people Congress is hobnobbing with,” a senior leader of BJP in Karnataka said.
“I was in jail for 77 days over drummed-up charges and in five months the court quashed the case because there was no merit in it. Raising such bogeys is not new for the BJP. They tried deeming the farmers’ protest in New Delhi a ‘Khalistan ploy’ first and when that didn’t take, they cried ‘Naxal’. The PM even coined a term ‘Andolanjeevi’ and now they are raising a Naxal bogey unable to come up with a counter to the yatra,” Narasimhamurthy told South First.
Many who are part of the Gauri Media Trust that manages “Nyaya Patha” and naanugauri.com are also associated with another portal eedina.com that has academics, writers and members of Congress among its governing council members.
“While there is no illegality in any functioning, given how activists have been targeted, we are worried that a Bhima Koregoan type of case could be fabricated,” a former member of the Gauri Media Trust told South First.
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