Bengaluru: Shobha Karandlaje, the firebrand Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP has triggered a political storm with her remarks directed at Tamilians. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed poll authorities in Karnataka to take appropriate action against Karandlaje for suggesting that those responsible for the blast at Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Cafe on 1 March were ‘trained’ in Tamil Nadu.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had earlier Wednesday filed an official complaint with ECI, seeking appropriate action against the Union minister for her remarks.
In a detailed letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, DMK organising secretary R.S. Bharathi said the controversial remarks were aimed at promoting enmity and hatred between the people of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu with an intention to further the “electoral prospects” of the BJP.
Bharathi said that Karandlaje’s statement “generalises the people of Tamil Nadu as extremists” and sought to “create hostility and enmity between the two communities (Kannadigas and Tamilians)”.
Earlier this week, Karandlaje had — during a protest to highlight the assault of a shopkeeper in Bengaluru for playing ‘music’ during azaan (Islamic call for prayer) — insinuated that Tamil Nadu had become a ‘training ground for terrorists’.
Her remarks elicited sharp criticism from all quarters, but the BJP MP from Udupi-Chikmagalur refused to speak to the media Wednesday.
Though this is not the first time the 54-year-old stirred controversy, it is probably a first when she was forced to retract her words to contain a fallout ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
ThePrint reached Shobha Karandlaje for comment via calls but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
“To my Tamil brothers & sisters, I wish to clarify that my words were meant to shine light, not cast shadows. Yet I see that my remarks brought pain to some – and for that, I apologise. My remarks were solely directed towards those trained in the Krishnagiri forest, linked to the Rameshwaram Cafe blast. To anyone from Tamilnadu effected, From the depths of my heart, I ask your forgiveness. Furthermore, I retract my previous comments,” Karandlaje, also a BJP vice president, wrote in a two-part post on X.
To my Tamil brothers & sisters,
I wish to clarify that my words were meant to shine light, not cast shadows. Yet I see that my remarks brought pain to some – and for that, I apologize. My remarks were solely directed towards those trained in the Krishnagiri forest,
1/2— Shobha Karandlaje (Modi Ka Parivar) (@ShobhaBJP) March 19, 2024
The fallout of her remarks Tuesday is still unknown but is likely to dent the strides made by the Tamil Nadu BJP unit under its chief K. Annamalai.
ThePrint reached at least three Tamil Nadu BJP leaders, including state unit chief K. Annamalai, former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and H. Raja via call for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
A BJP spokesperson from Tamil Nadu, however, told ThePrint on condition of anonymity, “Firstly she did not generalise Tamilians. She said that the people who planted the bomb were from Tamil Nadu. Right or wrong, she gives the explanation that there is some input that they were trained in the forests of Krishnagiri, etc. but we do not have full information.”
The spokesperson suggested that the controversy had remained largely at the top layer and did not percolate among the masses in Tamil Nadu owing to seat-sharing talks dominating the state’s politics at this time.
“Maybe if this had happened on a normal day, it would have been a big issue,” said the spokesperson, adding that the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit has in the past opposed the party’s Karnataka unit on the Cauvery river water dispute, among other issues.
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RSS background, firebrand leader
Shobha Karandlaje is a Tulu-speaking Vokkaliga born in Charvaka in Puttur of Dakshina Kannada district. Having joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), ideological parent of the BJP, at a very young age as a volunteer, she has been a prominent proponent of Hindutva.
Even though her mentor Yediyurappa himself has rarely been seen as a strong voice for Hindutva-style of politics, Karandlaje made this her trademark and is counted in the pantheon of other firebrand BJP leaders in southern India which includes Nalin Kumar Kateel, Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, Tejasvi Surya and Prathap Simha, among others.
She began her political career in 1996 as the general secretary of Udupi district BJP Mahila Morcha. Her rise in the BJP has been nothing short of meteoric, attributed largely to her close association with Yediyurappa. She has held ministerial portfolios like rural development and panchayati raj, energy and additional charge for the food and civil services department.
A two-term MP from Udupi-Chikmagalur, Karandlaje has now been named as the BJP candidate from Bengaluru North after her earlier constituents were unhappy with their representative who, voters from the coastal districts say, prioritised Hindutva and rabble-rousing rather than focussing on development. The BJP was forced to relocate her after the “Go Back Shobha” campaign erupted in her earlier constituency.
“She stood for both Hindutva and development. But because she did not come for the stone-laying ceremony or inauguration of projects but only gave money for various projects, it was perceived that she did no work at all,” a BJP leader from Chikmagalur told ThePrint.
But Karandlaje has held her own even in the face of attacks from the Opposition as well as from her own party colleagues.
Often mocked for her “closeness” with Yediyurappa, Karandlaje has rarely ever hit back at such allegations.
On Sunday, senior BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa made a nasty remark against the Union minister. “If you tear my heart open, on one side you will find Sri Ramachandra and another will be (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi. But if you do the same with Yediyurappa, on one side you will find his two children and the other side will be Shobha (Karandlaje). I am not saying this but the workers are,” he told supporters in Shivamogga.
Shobha Karandlaje’s past run-ins with controversy
In February 2020, Karandlaje, considered a close aide of former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa, had called for greater scrutiny of migrants from Kerala saying this demand was warranted for “various reasons and not just coronavirus”.
Just the previous month, she said Kerala “is taking baby steps to become another Kashmir” and alleged that Hindu families in Kuttippuram in Malappuram were denied water supply after they supported the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
In December 2017, the Karnataka Police publicly refuted her claims.
On December 8, 2017, months before the Karnataka assembly elections, 21-year-old Paresh Mesta was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Honnavar taluk of Uttara Kannada district. Karandlaje had then claimed that Mesta was “tortured and killed by jihadists”, even detailing how the murder allegedly took place. Two days later, the Karnataka Police put out a detailed response on social media which included forensic analysis results which contradicted the claims made by the BJP MP.
Karandlaje had also posted a list of 23 ‘pro-Hindu’ workers in the run-up to the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections, allegedly killed by “Jihadists”. Some of these people were found to be still alive and at least one of them allegedly died by suicide.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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