Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who has relinquished power to DK Shivakumar, struck an emotional note during his farewell press conference on May 28, saying, “I will fight against communalism till my last breath”. The clip went viral and made many eyes moist with nostalgia. But that’s the thing about nostalgia; it creates the illusion of a pristine past.
Just before his tearjerker press conference, Siddaramaiah had a closed door discussion for more than 15 minutes with the prominent Hindutva journalist Vishweshwar Bhat. The private space between the self avowed secularist and the unapologetic right-winger has been one of the many confounding features of the outgoing Chief Minister’s two terms.
His supporters have always passed off this odd friendship as a mark of Siddaramaiah’s statesmanship; his ability to take everybody along. There has always been speculation that Bhat was the Sangh’s emissary in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) during both his terms at the helm.
Speculation aside, the moot question of public interest is the performance of the Siddaramaiah government in the fight against communalism. Judicial records provide a clear answer to this question. And they are disconcerting to say the least.
The discrepancy became apparent on the very day he took his oath of office in May 2023. At the time, BJP MLA from Belthangady Harish Poonja delivered a provocative speech falsely claiming that Siddaramaiah was responsible for the deaths of 24 Hindu activists.
Although an FIR was promptly registered against Poonja in Belthangady on May 22, 2023, the Karnataka High Court issued a stay order on the proceedings just weeks later on June 9. Paradoxically, the state government has made no effort to lift this stay, despite the provocative communal rhetoric being targeted at the Chief Minister himself. Incidentally, Harish Poonja and Vishweshwar Bhat are often seen sharing space on the dais at Sangh events.
The passivity shown in the Poonja case appears to be part of a larger pattern. Take the case of cow vigilante and murder accused Puneeth Kerehalli. Facing 10 criminal cases between 2013 and 2023, Kerehalli had been arrested by the Bangalore City Police under the stringent Goonda Act. Yet, on September 17, 2023, the government chose to withdraw the Goonda Act charges and release him, acting on a report from the State Advisory Board and instructions from the High Court.
This release occurred despite Kerehalli’s violent track record. He had previously been arrested by the Sathanur police for allegedly killing Idris Pasha, a cattle transporter from Mandya, during the April 2023 elections.
Although he secured bail in that murder case, numerous subsequent complaints were filed accusing him of inciting further communal hatred. This is precisely why he had been rearrested under the Goonda Act.
Even as the government weakened the case against Kerehalli in the courts, Siddaramaiah and his colleagues passionately condemned his actions and promised to take stringent against him on the floor of the assembly. They countered BJP leaders who defended Kerehalli with the list of criminal charges against him which included a case of sex trafficking filed when the previous BJP government was in power. It was great for optics and the government’s secular credentials but the devil is truly in the detail.
Take the case when the Pandeshwar police in Mangaluru registered an FIR against VHP leader Sharan Pumpwell for declaring that Muslims should be barred from doing business at the Mangaladevi temple. The High Court stayed the FIR on October 20, 2023. To this day, the state government has yet to file a single application to lift that stay.
Other prominent right-wing figures too benefited from a similar lack of state pushback. On October 5, 2023, the Karwar Rural Police registered an FIR against Yuva Brigade founder Chakravarthy Sulibele for spreading communal hatred through targeted statements against Siddaramaiah. When the court issued a stay order on this FIR on November 16, 2023, the government did not bother to petition for its removal.
A similar scenario unfolded around RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, who triggered widespread outrage by making derogatory comments targeting Muslim women. Instead of an aggressive prosecution, the High Court noted on December 28, 2023, that because the state government explicitly gave assurances that it would not arrest Bhat, no active steps should be taken against him. Ultimately, it was a private citizen initiative, working through human rights lawyer S. Balan, that filed a petition in the High Court to vacate that stay order.
The administration’s inaction extended even to insults directed at its own national leadership. On January 30, 2024, the Kalaburagi bench of the Karnataka High Court stayed the FIRs filed against Chakravarthy Sulibele for making derogatory casteist remarks against AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge at a NaMo Brigade event in Sirwara, Raichur district. Despite public outcries from the Congress high command and the state unit, the government made no attempts to challenge the stay or pursue an inquiry.
The legal retreat was equally visible when it came to local preventive law enforcement. In Belthangady, the Puttur Sub-Divisional Magistrate had issued externment notices under Section 55 of the Karnataka Police Act against Hindu Jagarana Vedike leaders Dinesh Panjiga and Yashodhar, ordering them to report to the Sindagi police station in Vijayapura district due to their involvement in communal riots, cattle raids, and moral policing. However, when the court stayed these externment orders on February 10, 2024, the state government—which consistently claims it is battling communalism—did absolutely nothing.
When former Union Minister Ananth Kumar Hegde was booked at the Kumta police station under Sections 153 (intention to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between groups), and 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code for using highly objectionable language against CM Siddaramaiah, the resulting judicial stay on February 16, 2024, went entirely unchallenged by the state.
By late February 2024, these unchallenged stays began turning into outright dismissals. On February 28, 2024, the High Court completely quashed a case against Sulibele and 10 other accused individuals—including a BJP MLA—concerning an unauthorised protest outside the Bengaluru Town Hall following the murder of Praveen Nettaru. The case had previously been stayed, but the state's passive approach allowed it to be wiped out entirely, granting complete relief to the accused. Despite this major legal defeat, the Siddaramaiah government declined to file an appeal with either a High Court Division Bench or the Supreme Court.
An FIR was registered against Ananth Kumar, who had made inflammatory statements against Muslims and heckled the CM as “Siddramullah Khan” This FIR was frozen by a judicial stay on March 16, 2024. Shortly after, when the Uttara Kannada district administration ordered Hindu activist Srinivas Naik to appear for a one-year externment hearing, Naik challenged the notice in the District Court. On April 10, 2024, the court stayed the externment, and once again, the government failed to contest it.
This pattern of unresisted legal stays effectively dismantled the district administrations' efforts to preserve peace ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
In Chikkamagaluru, District Collector Meena Nagaraj had cited 17 distinct reasons to extern Tudukur Manju, the former district convener of the Chikkamagaluru Bajrang Dal, for two months. The High Court promptly stayed that order on April 25, 2024.
A similar failure to act unfolded in the case of Akshay Rajput, a member of the Hindu Jagran Manch in Vittla taluk who was accused of inciting communal riots. Although the police arrested him at his residence and initiated externment proceedings, the High Court stayed the order on May 9, 2024. The very next day, on May 10, the High Court stayed the Dakshina Kannada police’s recommendation to extern Bajrang Dal activists Prajwal, Nitin, Dinesh, and Pradeep from Ajaladka to Bagalkot for their roles in local riots. Predictably, the state government failed to challenge either decision.
As the weeks progressed, the legal pushback from right-wing figures only intensified. When the Belthangady police arrested an individual carrying illegal explosives, local MLA Harish Poonja barged into the station and explicitly threatened officers to secure the suspect's release. An FIR was registered against Poonja for this intimidation, but the High Court stayed the investigation on May 31, 2024.
This was followed by a June 7, 2024 stay order on an FIR against Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Sharan Pumpwell. The case stemmed from an incident where Muslims offered prayers on the road near Kankanady Circle in Mangaluru, after which Pumpwell allegedly shared a social media post designed to incite communal violence. True to form, the Siddaramaiah administration made no effort to lift the stay.
The government's passive approach toward powerful political figures became even more egregious during a high-profile Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) case involving former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. The case began in March 2024 when a mother attempted to report that Yediyurappa had sexually assaulted her minor daughter. Despite a Congress-led administration being in power, the police initially flatly refused to register an FIR against the prominent BJP leader. It was only after a sustained public fight for justice that the case was formally logged, a development first brought to light by The Hindu.
Yet, even after the FIR was filed, the state police refused to investigate or make an arrest. Instead, Home Minister G Parameshwara summarily dismissed the allegations without an investigation, publicly claiming that the victim’s mother was mentally ill. This blatant institutional protection pointed directly to Yediyurappa's cozy, cross-party relationships with top Congress leaders, including Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar.
Desperate for help, the victim's mother contacted the Janavadi Mahila Sangathane of the CPI(M). After hearing her story, Gouramma of JMS passed the woman's contact information to me, leading to a lengthy phone conversation between us. I reached out to advocate S Balan, who agreed to provide free legal aid, and we began tackling the case as a team. Tragically, within just a couple of days of starting our work, we received word that the mother had died in the hospital.
Refusing to let the case die with her, Balan prepared a comprehensive writ petition citing extensive judicial precedents and filed it in the High Court on June 10. The filing sent the police into panic mode, as anyone reading the text could see it guaranteed strict accountability for their three months of absolute inaction and failure to issue even a basic Section 41(a) notice.
The very next day, June 11, the police hastily issued the 41(a) notice to Yediyurappa. By June 13, they applied to the Sessions Court for a non-bailable warrant to interrogate him, which the court granted after hearing arguments. Yediyurappa immediately retaliated by petitioning the High Court to cancel both the warrant and the case entirely.
Day after day, I accompanied Balan to the High Court to follow the proceedings closely, filing extensive petitions to ensure the deceased mother’s fight for her daughter continued. Ultimately, the High Court upheld the actions of both the CID and the trial court, forcing Yediyurappa to face a formal trial for the sexual assault of a minor. Now, as Yediyurappa takes his appeal to the Supreme Court, the state government—which should be aggressively prosecuting the case—is quietly standing behind him. Our team, however, remains resolute, and Balan has already submitted the victim’s legal advocacy to the apex court. Amidst all this, one is left to wonder exactly where Siddaramaiah’s vaunted fight against communalism and injustice has gone.
This administrative lethargy has even harmed the Congress party’s national leadership. When right-wing YouTuber Ajit Bharti circulated a fake video falsely claiming that Rahul Gandhi promised to replace the Ram Mandir with the Babri Masjid, the KPCC legal unit filed a complaint at the High Ground Police Station for inciting religious groups to riot. The police registered a case under IPC Sections 153A and 505(2), but when the High Court issued a stay order, the government sat idly by, refusing to defend its own national leader against dangerous communal disinformation.
An even more revealing dynamic unfolded in a separate case involving Harish Poonja. After a complaint was lodged against him at the Uppinangady police station for deeply insulting the Muslim community, Poonja publicly bragged that he did not care if a hundred FIRs were registered against him. His confidence was surely not misplaced; the High Court stayed the FIR on May 22, 2025.
Because the state government showed no commitment to challenging the freeze, a group of activists and journalists collaborated with Balan to file an official application on behalf of the original complainant seeking to vacate the stay.
Remarkably, rather than supporting our effort, the Siddaramaiah government actively coordinated with the defence to delay the hearing. The High Court formally noted this collusion in its records, writing: "Learned High Court Government Pleader for respondent No.1 as well as learned counsel for the petitioner jointly seek time."
Balan eventually forced the court's hand by detailing how Poonja was weaponising the delay, arguing that the MLA was taking advantage of the interim order to continuously deliver hate speech. Acknowledging this reality, the judge ruled that while the interim stay would be extended until the next hearing, it was strictly conditional on Poonja not repeating the offenses. Only then did Poonja's hate speeches finally stop—an outcome forced by private citizens while the government remained completely silent.
This total abdication of duty extended to several other hate speech cases. On May 12, a tribute program was held for murdered rowdy-sheeter Suhas Shetty at the Madva Palace Kalyana Mantapa Hall in Kavalapadur village, where Prabhakar Bhat delivered a highly provocative speech aimed at fracturing communal harmony. A judicial stay was granted on June 2, 2025.
Similarly, on May 25, Shrikant Shetty gave an inflammatory speech during a Sangh Parivar 'Bajpe Chalo' rally, demanding the NIA take over the Suhas Shetty murder investigation. This case was also stayed on June 2, 2025. When yet another FIR regarding hate speech by VHP leader Sharan Pumpwell in Udupi was frozen by the court, the Siddaramaiah government once again made absolutely no attempt to clear the legal hurdles.
Perhaps the most tragic example of this breakdown occurred following a horrific incident on April 27, 2025. Ashraf, a mentally ill resident of Wayanad, Kerala, was lynched by a mob in Kudupu simply because he was a Muslim. His killers left his body in a field for their own amusement. Intense public protests eventually forced the police to arrest 21 individuals. However, by May 31, the accused were quietly granted bail. The state government did not bother to appeal their release, failing to even properly register the necessary criminal sections to ensure these brutal killers remained behind bars.
In the case of the Baba Budangiri Dargah too, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government displayed what has often been called a “soft Hindutva” stance. Siddaramaiah’s government submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court that tacitly supported the Sangh Parivar's claim to the Baba Budan Dargah and facilitated the appointment of a Hindu priest at the Sufi shrine. The Congress government simply submitted the affidavit that the BJP government had previously submitted to the court in a different format on the instructions of the Sangh Parivar.
The Siddaramaiah government’s stand of the Baba Budangiri issue sabotaged several decades of painstaking work by activists, including the late Gauri Lankesh. Indeed, the Baba Budangiri issue became the starting point for an organised fightback against Hindutva by the civil society of Karnataka.
Since 1992, Hindutva organisations have been protesting and rioting, claiming that the Baba Budan Dargah was a temple of Dattatreya and demanding the appointment of Brahmin priests. In 2007, the Karnataka High Court confirmed this and directed the Religious Endowments Commissioner to 'verify the veracity of the demands of Hindutva organisations regarding Dattatreya and submit a report'.
The Religious Endowments Department reported without any historical references that ‘Baba Budan Dargah was originally a Dattatreya temple and was converted into a dargah during the reign of Hyder Ali in 1780’. It recommended that Hindu priests be appointed in the dargah and Hindu Agama methods of worship should be allowed.
The Shah Khadri Ghouse Mohiuddin, the hereditary administrator of the dargah, challenged these recommendations in the High Court and the Supreme Court. The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court in 2025 stating that ‘the government will constitute a committee comprising an equal number of Hindu and Muslim members for the management of the dargah, and will also appoint a Hindu priest along with the Mujawar.’ Instead of defending the historically accurate position at the site, the Siddaramaiah government contrived a solution please the Sangh parivar.
Other instances of communal violence in coastal Karnataka, particularly murders and cow vigilantism, also reveal inconsistencies between the Congress government’s rhetoric and its actions.
On May 1, 2025, rowdy-sheeter Suhas Shetty was hacked to death by miscreants in Bajpe Kinni Padavu, Mangaluru. Shetty was the main accused in numerous robberies and murders of Hindu rowdies, and the murder of a Dalit youth. However, he had recently risen to the rank of a Hindutva activist after murdering an innocent Muslim youth.
Following the hacking, the local police registered a case and arrested the accused. Shortly after, the Union Home Ministry handed the investigation over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA)—an intervention in the state's law and order situation that the Siddaramaiah government did not oppose. Notably, while the accused in the lynching of Ashraf managed to secure bail within a month, the accused arrested for murdering a rowdy-sheeter are still being denied bail.
Koltamajalu Abdul Rahim was murdered on May 27, 2025, in Irakodi, Kuriyal village, Bantwal taluk. A case was registered against the accused, Bajrang Dal's Bharat Kumdale, along with other individuals. Progressive people in the state demanded that the police invoke the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act-2000 (KCOCA Act) against the Bajrang Dal.
The Dakshina Kannada district police then reported to the court that the KCOCA Act would be invoked as the accused "have been involved in illegal activities including murder, attempt to murder, and provocative speeches for many years, which have caused unrest and communal conflict in society”.
However, the Mysore Special Court quashed the KCOCA Act charges because they had been applied after a long delay. The state’s stance appeared to suggest that while the KCOCA Act should be implemented, Hindutva activists must be exempted from its purview— on one hand, the NIA was investigating the murder case of a Hindutva rowdy-sheeter but on the other, the government's irresponsibility cost it the chance to invoke the KCOCA Act in connection with the murder of an innocent Muslim youth.
On the morning of October 22, 2025, the Puttur police opened fire on Abdullah, a native of Kasaragod, Kerala, who was accused of being an "illegal cow smuggler". The police stated that Abdullah was shot when he ran away. Following the incident, Puttur Congress MLA Ashok Rai remarked, "Now he has been shot in the leg. If a cow smuggler like this happens, bullets will also be fired on other parts of the body."
Legally, the police cannot shoot an accused simply because they might escape; they can only shoot in self-defence. Furthermore, illegal cow smuggling or cow theft is not a serious case that requires shooting when an accused escapes. Therefore, the government should have taken action against the police, but so far, none has been taken. When I spoke to Abdullah’s family, they showed me the permission for cattle transport and the receipt for buying the cattle. To this day, Abdullah has not got justice.
The police's "shooting operation" has raised many suspicions. When the police chased and stopped the vehicle transporting cows and unloaded the cattle, Hindutva leader Arun Putthila was present, guiding the police constables on how to unload them. The case raises several disturbing questions about whether the Hindutva activists have changed their vigilantism modus operandi. How did Arun Putthila appear in the middle of the police operation? Was this a joint operation of the police and Hindutva?
Moments after the police shot the accused, Arun Kumar Puttila posted a congratulatory poster on his official Facebook account featuring his own photo alongside photos of SP Arun K, DySP Arun Nagegowda, and Station House Officer Jamburaj Mahajan. The poster stated: "Congratulations to the police officers who shot cow killers for the sake of cow worship."
Arun Kumar Putthila's move was an attempt to portray the police's legal action as an act of religious vengeance or communal outrage, a stand that goes against the core values of the Constitution. From a legal standpoint, what Arun Kumar Puttila did is a crime under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Section 197 (Provocation with intent to cause riot), which punishes whoever makes a statement with intent to cause hatred or resentment on the basis of race, religion, caste, or language. Yet, the government has not taken any action—at least not against Arun Putthila.
Another disturbing policy that the Siddaramaiah-led government introduced was the ‘Savirada Sarkara' program under which the Dakshina Kannada district police visited mosques to raise awareness about illegal cattle trafficking and cattle slaughter. This is both unconstitutional and discriminatory—the government itself projected certain acts as the sole preserve of the Muslim community, insulted the community, and criminalised religious centres.
Due to this policy, the Dharmasthala police visited a mosque in Kokkada and warned of legal action in the name of public awareness. Also, people in several other mosques
Sullia Kendra Jumma Mosque, Mogarpane Jumma Mosque, Dugaladka Mosque, Sunnamule, Kumbhakkodu, and Aranthodu mosques in Sullia were similarly warned. The police threatened that the houses of those who violated the cow slaughter act would be confiscated.
This sends the message that only Muslims violate the Karnataka Cow Slaughter Prohibition and Cattle Protection Act. Saying that only one community violates a law is an act of 'criminalising a community'. Just as the British declared the tribal and nomadic communities as 'criminal tribes', the Dakshina Kannada police declared the Muslim community as a 'criminal community'.
Even as this was happening, the Dharmasthala police registered an FIR against Mohammed Sinan, Ibrahim Khalil and Johara on November 2, 2025, for illegal cattle trafficking.
According to the FIR, Mohammed Sinan and Ibrahim Khalil were cattle traffickers, while Johara was a cattle seller. The police also seized the land and home of the person who allegedly sold the cattle and charged her under the draconian cattle protection laws passed by the previous BJP government. If merely selling cattle to transporters is a crime warranting the confiscation of land, then the lands and houses of thousands of farmers would also have to be confiscated.
Finally, a group of progressives led by BM Bhat and Munir Katipalla intervened and secured the release of the confiscated house. The house and its premises do not belong solely to any one accused person. Children, grandchildren and mothers, who had no knowledge of the accused's actions, were living there. Evicting them suddenly without even informing them amounted to punishing people who were not accused in the case. Perhaps, the greatest evidence of the Siddaramaiah government's tacit understanding with Hindutva forces is in the fact that it never made a move to repeal the cow protection laws of the BJP.
Our timely intervention helped secure the release of the seized house belonging to Saramma, who was innocent. Many Muslim households have faced similar seizures in the name of cattle-related offences. The Congress, which opposed the BJP government's cow slaughter ban law as inhumane when it was in the Opposition, is now implementing the same law in a manner that is even more severe than the BJP did while in power.
The only slaughterhouse under the jurisdiction of the Mangalore Municipal Corporation has been deliberately closed on the pretext of repairs. As a result, there is no facility available for the legal slaughter of officially purchased cattle. This has also created a situation in which goats and sheep are being prepared butchered in unhygienic locations. With the closure of this government-run slaughterhouse, many licensed cattle traders have effectively been turned into "illegal cattle traders" and are now languishing in jail as accused persons.
The son of Abdul Khader, vice-president of the Meat Traders' Association, has been arrested in a beef detection case despite never having transported cattle and never having been accused in a single case before. Even though this is the first (false?) case registered against Khader's son, the KCOCA Act has been invoked against him. A man who has not committed any organised crime was booked under the KCOCA Act and made to rot in jail without bail in the very first case against him simply because he was a cattle trader. Is this Siddaramaiah's fight against communalism?
The High Court has issued stay orders in more than 30 hate speech cases involving anti-Muslim remarks. The government has not taken any steps to get these stay orders vacated. Obtaining and granting bail is a constitutional right, available to both individuals and through the courts.
However, as a small team, we are fighting legal battles in many hate speech cases to ensure that habitual offenders such as Prabhakar Bhatt are not granted bail easily. Without spending a single rupee of public money, our team is carrying out work that should have been undertaken by the government. Why was a government as strong as the one led by Siddaramaiah unable to achieve what a small team could?
The ruling establishment under his leadership created an environment that enabled communalism to grow. Now, while demitting office, what is the use of declaring, “I will fight communalism until my last breath?”
Naveen Soorinje is a senior Kannada journalist and anti-Hindutva activist. Views expressed are the author’s own.
