BengaluruAugust 29, 2025 01:38 PM IST
First published on: Aug 29, 2025 at 01:36 PM IST
After maintaining a studied silence for weeks on the alleged secret burials in the temple town of Dharmasthala in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district and even welcoming a probe by the Siddaramaiah government-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT), the BJP has finally begun targeting the Congress on the issue, accusing it of being part of a “conspiracy to defame the temple town”.
The BJP, which has now demanded a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the matter, had welcomed the SIT inquiry even as its Rajya Sabha MP and Dharmadhikari of the temple town, Veerendra Heggade, came under attack on social media over the allegations.
The BJP’s change in stance comes after the allegations levelled by the whistleblower in the case, now identified as C N Chinnaiah, a former sanitation worker in Dharmasthala, could not be substantiated despite an FIR being registered on July 4. Chinnaiah was arrested last week on charges of perjury.
The first indications of the party’s changed position on the issue came in the Monsoon Session of the legislature, where BJP Karkala MLA V Sunil Kumar claimed there was a “continuous effort to defame a Hindu religious site on the pretext of an investigation”. The BJP also sought an interim report on the SIT’s probe and demanded action against “those making false claims about the temple town”.
Claiming that several questions were raised about the veracity of Chinnaiah’s claims and on the people “tutoring him”, the BJP demanded that the Siddaramaiah government “uncover the several masked men behind the masked man”, referring to Chinnaiah covering his face during the exhumation of bodies that he had claimed were buried near the town. Nothing was uncovered during the digs. The party’s allegations got support from unexpected quarters during the Monsoon Session after Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar claimed that the Dharmasthala case was a “part of a conspiracy”. “Right now, I do not want to say who is behind it, but it (the issue) is a well-planned strategy to sully the centuries-old legacy (of Dharmasthala),” he had said.
On August 17, days after Shivakumar’s remarks, which were seen by many as an indication that a section of the Congress too was not happy with the developments in the case, the BJP upped the ante. The party’s state chief, B Y Vijayendra, led a delegation of 20 party MLAs to the temple town to express solidarity with the temple administration and to protest against the “smear campaign being run against the temple management”. Claiming that an NIA probe was “essential to uncover the malicious forces behind the case”, he also announced a “Dharmasthala chalo” campaign. The BJP delegation’s visit was followed by MLAs from ally JD(S) and their supporters.
Responding to the issue in the Assembly, state Home Minister G Parameshwara last week said the objective of the SIT probe was to “only bring out the truth and not target anyone”. He also said action would be taken against those posting defamatory content against Heggade and his family.
However, the BJP did not seem impressed and walked out of the House while accusing the Siddaramaiah government of “being hand-in-glove with the conspirators who had hatched a plot to defame Dharmasthala”.
In remarks that suggested the Congress was likely to target two activists – Mahesh Shetty Thimarody and Girish Mattannavar – in the future on the issue, Shivakumar on Tuesday claimed that the temple town was being “defamed due to an internal fight within the BJP”. “The BJP and its associates were behind the smear campaign and now they are trying to cover it up as they fear we will disclose names,” he said.
Thimarody is a former RSS worker who floated the Akhila Bharathiya Vishwa Hindu Parishad, while Mattannavar contested Assembly polls on a BJP ticket in the past. That Thimarody, who was arrested for allegedly abusing BJP national general secretary B L Santhosh and is out on bail, sheltered Chinnaiah at his home, is learnt to have caused unease among the party’s state leadership.
With rumours of minority groups joining forces to “besmirch Dharmasthala’s image”, fingers have also been pointed at YouTuber Sameer M D and T Jayanth, a Christian who is another complainant in the case.
Despite Dharmasthala being thronged by devotees from across the state, the political repercussions of the case are likely to be confined to the Dakshina Kannada region, where the BJP is seen to be the dominant party.