The Congress is grappling with the politics of division in Karnataka

Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara’s announcement that the Special Action Force (SAF) would be deployed in Mandya district has brought renewed attention to threats to religious harmony. The SAF is already deployed in the communally volatile coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, besides Shivamogga.

Formed by restructuring the Anti Naxal Force, the 280-member SAF is tasked with maintaining communal peace by cracking down on those fomenting religious hatred; gathering intelligence on communally provocative speeches; and monitoring social media for content that has potential to vitiate the atmosphere. Headed by an officer of the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police, the SAF does not have the authority to investigate cases. It only identifies potential offences and alerts the jurisdictional police to take appropriate action. The Home Minister said he was satisfied with the SAF’s performance, noting that since its launch in June 2025, the coastal districts had not seen any communal flare-ups.

His decision to deploy the SAF in Mandya comes on the back of a spate of recent communal incidents in the district. Dominated by the largely agrarian and land-owning Vokkaligas, Mandya has historically remained insulated from communal politics. In the 1970s and 1980s, the youth of Mandya gravitated towards progressive movements such as the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and the Dalit Sangharsha Samithi, and embraced poet laureate Kuvempu’s philosophy of a ‘Vishwa Manava’ (universal human being).

But in recent years, communal tensions have repeatedly surfaced. The annual Hanuma Jayanti procession in Srirangapatna, the erstwhile seat of power during Tipu Sultan’s reign, often sparks communal tension when the Hindu Jagran Vedike march passes by the 18th century Jamia Masjid and its activists make a vain bid to enter the fortified mosque. In January 2024, there was a row in Keregodu over replacing a saffron flag with the Indian tricolour on a flagpole. In September that year in Nagamangala, there was stone throwing during the Ganesha immersion procession, which escalated into clashes; the same happened in Maddur this September. These episodes, in addition to the heckling of a hijab-clad girl by a group of boys waving saffron shawls in a college in 2022, signal a worrying communal drift.

Political analysts have observed that the rise in instances of religious intolerance in Mandya has coincided with the BJP’s electoral alliance with the JD(S) — a party traditionally backed by Vokkaligas and a key competitor to the ruling Congress in the region.

The Congress secured six out of seven Assembly seats in Mandya district in the 2023 polls, including the Melukote seat, where it supported Darshan Puttannaiah of the Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha party. However, it lost the Mandya Lok Sabha seat to JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy in the 2024 elections. It now blames JD(S) cadres’ support for BJP’s Hindutva politics for deepening religious polarisation.

For decades, the Congress and the JD(S) were directly in contest in the Old Mysore region, while the BJP struggled to gain a foothold. But the alliance between the H.D. Deve Gowda-led party with the BJP appears to have significantly altered the dynamics on the ground. The JD(S) cadre, who had previously competed with the Congress for Muslim votes to maintain a fragile communal balance, now find themselves aligned with the BJP and its affiliates. The shift was evident during the padayatra taken out to protest against the Keregodu flag controversy when even Mr. Kumaraswamy sported a saffron shawl. It was also seen during demonstrations against the stone pelting on Ganesha idols in Maddur.

The public response to the call for protest against the recent stone pelting incident in Maddur was striking. Even though the local police had acted swiftly by arresting more than 20 people belonging to the Muslim community, the demonstrations remained massive. JD(S) leaders flanked BJP firebrands at demonstrations in Maddur.

While the Congress grapples with the challenges of communalisation and the BJP-JD(S) combine, it hopes that the SAF will help restore stability. While the BJP, which gained votes between 2018 and 2023, is strengthened by its JD(S) alliance in the Vokkaliga heartland, the long-term future of the JD(S) remains uncertain.