A BJP MP in Karnataka wanted bus stands with domes to be demolished; the NHAI obliges
The National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI’s) notice to Mysore City Corporation and Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited to demolish the bus shelters which had a dome is unfortunate. A few days ago, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Pratap Simha from the southern State had threatened that he would bulldoze the bus stand for its resemblance with a mosque. The NHAI, a Central Government-run body, decided to further the divisive agenda of the local leader. A former journalist, Simha represents Mysore-Kodagu region in the Lok Sabha. At a public function, he recently said he had seen the pictures of a bus stop on social media. It had three domes. Therefore, “It is a masjid. I have told engineers to demolish the structure and if they don’t do it, I will take a JCB and demolish it.” This is worse than churlishness; and this raises several questions. First, would the Hon’ble Member of Parliament demolish every mosque or mosque-like structure? Even if these buildings are legally made, as the bus stand is? He has been elected by people to become a lawmaker. Why does he want to become a lawbreaker? The Supreme Court of India has a dome, as also do North and South Blocks, which house the Ministries of Finance, Home, Defence, and External Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office. Would Simha take his JCB to these buildings too? Further, gurdwaras, including the famous Golden Temple, have domes. Here too?
One wonders where this madness, this hatred for anything and everything Islamic, would end. In the case of Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, the divisive agenda has gone too far. As a clever politician, he knows which side of the bread is buttered; he is aware that the flavour of the season is divisiveness and the colour saffron. His handicap, however, is that he is not from the RSS, not even from the BJP proper; he has come from the Janata family of parties. So, in a bid to express his zeal for Hindutva, his Government and the BJP in Karnataka have embraced one polarising issue after the other. The hijab order was justified, but even that was made to needle orthodox Muslims, not to further the cause of liberty in the state. There have been reports about Muslim traders being banned from setting up stalls at temple fairs, boycott of meat sold by Muslim butchers. Also a boycott of Muslim mango sellers. It seems that the only thing the state Government and BJP leaders are doing is intensifying divisions between Hindus and Muslims. They don’t appear to be talking about development, investment, employment generation, the crumbling infrastructure, including in Bangaluru; it is the Hindu-Muslim dialectic they are bothered about. A State which showcased, and still does so, India’s software prowess, which has enormous potential, is now in the news only when someone like Simha says or does something unlovely. Such are the wages of polarisation.