Serial murders pose challenge for govt in poll-bound Karnataka

BENGALURU: Back-to-back murders in Dakshina Kannada district over the last 10 days have brought to light the pitiful state of law and order in Karnataka. Going by the state government’s statistics, there has been a drastic increase in violence, murders and organised attacks in the coastal districts in the last three years. It has prompted the government to unveil special police measures to prevent such incidents in the future.
According to a former state police chief, who previously worked as a superintendent of police in coastal districts, there has been a surge in organised attacks and murders in the state in the last three-four years, largely due to political reasons, and it appears that coastal Karnataka is being influenced by Kannur-style politics. About 150km from Mangaluru, Kannur in Kerala has a history replete with bloody feuds and revenge murders. Political murders have been rampant there through the decades, and most of the killings in the district were sparked by the bitter rivalry between the CPM and the RSS.
“Dakshina Kannada and Udupi have been educational hubs, drawing students from far and wide over the last three or four decades. They have been providing students with a suitable ambience for learning and personality development because of the local culture. But the law and order situation in the region is getting worse and it could have a major impact on the local economy in the long run,” said Vishwanth Belliappa, an education expert. “It is the responsibility of the police force to put an end to these activities,” he added.
Satish Poojary, a long-time Mangaluru resident, admitted that there is a sharp spike in religious polarisation, not just between major and minority communities but also within the caste groups of Hindus, tearing apart the invaluable social and religious fabric of Tulunadu.
The political ramifications of these horrific murders have also posed a major challenge to chief minister Basavaraj Bommai ahead of the 2023 assembly election.
The ruling BJP seems to be in a predicament in the aftermath of the July 26 incident, where party worker Praveen Nettaru was murdered, sparking a backlash from its own cadre. The government now faces the dual challenge of maintaining the law and order situation and taking tough actions against the perpetrators of the crime to appease the cadre.
Political observers believe that the bloodbath in Dakshina Kannada in the recent past should not be seen merely as a law and order problem through the blinkered lens of political gang rivalry or revenge killings alone. “These gruesome incidents prove that we have lost the real substance of democracy. What essentially remains is the ritualisation of periodic elections. If this situation must improve at all, there must be a larger civil society movement that can counter this kind of violent, aggressive politics,” said Vishwas Shetty, a political commentator.
According to him, the aggressive politics in coastal Karnataka, involving the Congress and the BJP, started in 2008 when the first BJP government was formed in the state, and the coastal region became the Hindutva laboratory. The rise of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the Popular Front of India (PFI) only gave impetus to further polarised politics. Many social observers feel that this kind of violence can be contained only if police are given the freedom to investigate such killings without considering the political leanings of the perpetrators.