With a reputation of being the Hindutva laboratory in southern India, Dakshina Kannada region has been regularly in the news for over two decades for its communally charged atmosphere and frequent flare-ups between Hindus and Muslims. This zone has been almost out of bounds for the other communities as far as electing MPs and MLAs are concerned, including in the 2023 Assembly elections where it returned BJP candidates from the majority community overwhelmingly. Of course, the 2024 Lok Sabha polls was a walkover for the saffron party as the nation still reposed faith on Narendra Modi, albeit in a derated manner. The recent controversy over the mass burial issue in Dharmasthala has uncomfortably turned the spotlight on this region again. An unnamed person has declared that he was a witness to mass burials of many women over a two-decade long period in this holy town, which has made almost all concerned to sit up and take notice. The government has understandably been cautious on proceeding in this case.

Quite interestingly, this town in Belthangady taluk has a Jain administration for the centuries-old Shiva temple, known locally as Manjunatha. Even more notable is that Hindu priests go about performing puja rituals based on Vaishnavite traditions. Given that both Shaivite and Vaishnavite sects have independent temples all over India, with its followers inter-dependent as far as belief in Hindu traditions go, Dharmasthala is surely under the scanner at present. The Jain community has stressed on an independent SIT enquiry, the Home Minister of the state has affirmed that he would take a comprehensive view of the ongoing affairs, while the political parties are waiting and watching, for the moment. Already, legal recourse to the wildfire in social media circles and electronic media has been sought to be capped with a court order restraining the media from publishing defamatory content. This was after the secretary of the temple knocked on the doors of the court when it threatened to implicate the officials of the temple overseeing the administration. Even as the court gagged media channels, they have moved an appeal in the Supreme Court seeking to quash this move, as per the latest developments.

Secular elements, sensing an opening, have welcomed the setting up of SIT and have asked for an impartial investigation. Noting that the FIR in this case was registered 20 days back, the progressive sections of the State have even enquired why the bodies could not have been exhumed if the claim of burying ‘hundreds of bodies’ was true. With the Chief Minister writing on X declaring that “there is a possibility that unnatural deaths, murders, rapes, and other serious crimes may have occurred in this area (sic)”,

it seems that the Pandora’s Box has just been opened, with the buzz slowly gaining momentum. Accused of being a minority-appeasing government, the Congress would like to step in, with a forceful style of its own, even as the BJP is cautiously wording its responses, awaiting further developments. Is it going to be the next dharmayudh between the two political rivals? Only time will tell.