From ‘Azaan’ irritation to ‘Vacate Mosques’ warning, BJP veteran Eshwarappa enjoys court disputes

KS Eshwarappa, a prominent leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a former deputy chief minister of Karnataka, is a guy who relishes stirring up controversy, is overtly anti-Muslim, and takes great delight in his deeply ingrained Hindutva philosophy.

Amidst the hurried preparations for the Pran Pratishtha, or consecration ceremony, at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, on January 22, the leader made yet another contentious declaration.

The former minister threatened Muslims with death if they remained in any mosques that he said were constructed after temples were desecrated. In the past, he had said that when temples were destroyed, churches and mosques were constructed in Mathura and Kashi Vishwanath.

Two other locations, including Mathura, are being considered. The case is in court, and wherever mosques have been constructed, we will build temples whenever the ruling is rendered, whether it is today or tomorrow. I think it would be better if you Muslims moved out on your own will. If not, there could be consequences,” he remarked.

“We don’t know how many people could die; we can’t foresee what might occur. Eshwarappa said, “We don’t know,” when addressing a Hindu workers’ convention in Belagavi.

Eshwarappa has a history of making remarks this outrageous. The senior BJP politician said in May of last year that 36,000 temples had been demolished nationwide in order to make way for masjids. He said that mosques had been erected over demolished temples by the Mughals.

We won’t put up with their constructing mosques over our temples and performing namaz there; instead, they should build mosques somewhere. He had said, “I am telling you now, not one masjid will be standing; all 36,000 temples will be reclaimed by Hindus using legal means.” This claim was made in response to the discovery of a Hindu temple-like building under an ancient mosque in Malali, a town outside of Mangaluru.

Along with BS Yediyurappa and the late former Union minister Ananth Kumar, Eshwarappa is a member of the Karnataka BJP trio, which established the party from the ground up and opened its first-ever account in southern India.

Eshwarappa has led the state BJP since 1993, when the saffron party had only four MLAs in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. He has the same Kuruba ancestry as Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The BJP enjoyed a big increase in popularity the next year and won 40 seats. That victory was attributed to Eshwarappa.

He was appointed Deputy Chief Minister in 2008 during Jagdish Shettar’s administration, and he has served as a minister in every Karnataka BJP government.

In 2017, an irate Eshwarappa founded the Sangliana Rajanna Brigade, a new “apolitical” group, after feeling marginalized by the party. Amit Shah’s involvement was necessary for him to reverse course and disband the forum.

After more than 40 years in politics, Eshwarappa was one of the senior BJP MLAs ordered by the party’s top leadership to withdraw from the May 2023 Assembly elections. Eshwarappa, who was 75 years old, was forced to move aside since he had beyond the BJP’s unofficial age threshold for politicians to run for office or take on leadership roles.

Following the suicide of civil works contractor Santosh Patil in April 2022, Eshwarappa resigned as the minister for rural development and panchayat raj. Patil had accused him of wanting a 40% fee for road construction in Belagavi. Eshwarappa failed to persuade the party high leadership to restore him or even provide him an electoral ticket, even though a police investigation vindicated him.

Then, in opposition, the Congress swiftly painted Eshwarappa as a “poster boy of corruption” and began a campaign against the BJP on the grounds that its administration was demanding a 40% commission and that as a result, people were ending their lives. On the basis of this issue, the Congress launched the “Pay CM” campaign and won Karnataka.

Eshwarappa stirred up controversy once again in the Karnataka elections of 2023 when he paused his speech to respond to an azaan from a neighboring mosque. He questioned if Allah was deaf and criticized the loud volume that was employed.

He said that the BJP did not want any Muslim votes in the upcoming Karnataka elections in another election address, characterizing the Congress agenda as one that sought to placate the Muslim community.

In addition to pledging to convert India into a Hindu country, Eshwarappa cautioned Muslims to observe Hindu holidays “if they are to live in Hindustan.”

“As Muslims living in Hindustan, you would all have difficulties if you coincide with the Hindu celebration of Ganesh. I am issuing a caution. What is the purpose of my appeal? They have an obligation to assist, Eshwarappa had said.

In February 2022, a local Muslim gang is said to have killed Bajrang Dal worker Harsha by hacking him to death. He had led the burial march for him. He left the march in defiance of police warnings, sparking a violent altercation between groups in Shivamogga, an area that is sensitive to communal tensions.

He also said in May that the saffron flag will take the place of the Tricolour, which drew harsh condemnation from the Congress.

In September 2019, Eshwarappa made the contentious assertion that the 2018 Assembly votes saw only “patriotic Muslims” vote for the BJP, branding those who did not as “anti-national” and “pro-Pakistani.” Additionally, he said that Muslims were not given seats by the BJP because they lacked faith in the organization.

Since being elected as an MLA or MLC from Shimoga in the 1990s, Eshwarappa said that he had never approached a single Muslim voter in his area, which has over 50,000 Muslim voters and between 8 and 10,000 Kuruba (his community) voters.

“Even so, I’ve won elections,” he said.