Dharmasthala: Much ado about nothing, literally…

Acrimonious, combative politics too has its limits. But what has happened in Dharmasthala continues to be a hot topic in media circles, nearly six to seven weeks after the first sensational report about ‘hundreds of bodies buried between 1995 and 2014’ surfaced initially. While it was a trending topic all through these days as the case took its own twists and turns, it finally ended as a badly botched up build-up for a political battle which seemed a trump card in the hands of the ruling party but now boomeranging on it as a political controversy. It had all the elements of a cat and mouse game to begin with. A revered Hindu institution, the world over, Dharmasthala was accused of being a centre of a horrible controversy, which was the handiwork of a masked whistleblower who had started the blame game well. Aided by a legal protection which guaranteed his anonymity, his statements alleging that the bodies he had buried bore traces of strangulation and sexual assault hit the bull’s eye, virtually immediately. Out came the rent-a-cause activists and bleeding hearts pleading for justice for the hapless female devotees subjected to such inhuman treatment.

The Mr. Anonymous (subsequently identified as Chinnaiah) also declared that he had to live in hiding for 12 years in neighbouring Tamil Nadu after all this devastation took place, which was what he saw and reported. There was no way that this sensational outbreak of ‘exclusive’ news items would not spiral out of control in the days that followed. After an initial round of wait-and-watch, out came the knives from both sides as the saffronites and secularists clashed with each other in a no-hold-barred fashion. Each accused the other of causing immense hurt to the people, who were confounded by the strange turns the case took. Rather rapidly, the establishment saw that it was losing control and the lead in the race of political one- upmanship, even as it announced the setting up of a SIT and sent the incriminating samples for forensic analysis. The cookie crumbled for the Congress party when the whistleblower buckled down, confessed to have been a plant by forces inimical to maintaining communal harmony and forced to do all that he had done, by unidentified elements.

The skull, which was the first piece of evidence unearthed (as revealed by the in-hiding witness) too has been declared to be a fake piece of evidence, touched up and polished to suit the prejudiced campaign, if the media reports are to be believed. Once all the props flopped for the ruling party, it was natural that they had to be ready for the onslaught by an initially low-profile BJP and the Hindutva forces. While the right supporters were calling the case as yet another attempt of the Congress to belittle and cause deliberate hurt to Hindus, launching protest marches across the State, the government is naturally edgy and defensive as the controversy has misfired badly, much to its discomfiture. With a series of arrests taking place of all the accused, the law is set to take its own course. Till it arrives at a conclusion, a fight to the finish battle between the ‘maligned’ supporters and unjust accusers will keep the issue red-hot for a while. It is surely an embarrassment which the Congress would like to play down as its adversaries dig deeper to let dirt fly all over, seeking justice for the aggrieved devotees.