At Hastinapura, on the fringes of the Chikkamagaluru constituency, among the various serrated edges that mark out the peaks of the Western Ghats, the tall mobile tower on the Bababudangiri hill is the most visible.
Since 2002, Paramesh Naik, a marginal farmer, had participated in many rallies that marched up the hill demanding that the syncretic Sree Dattatreya Bababudan Swamy Dargah at the peak be declared a Hindu temple.
This year, however, as an estimated 20,000 people gathered there for the celebration of Datta Jayanti, which was started by Sangh affiliates in early 2000s, Mr. Naik stayed in his village, grappling with the harsh realities of a three-year drought.
At the shrine, after a series of provocative speeches, a mob broke the tombstones at the dargah. C.T. Ravi, BJP MLA and a prominent face of the protests, then said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s “play for vote banks” would be punished in the elections.
For many like Mr. Naik, who has now abandoned his areca cultivation, drought has trumped Hindutva. “Datta was such a big movement, and it had our support as we all thought there would be change in the shrine ... After all this, nothing has actually happened ...We just want someone who can solve our water problem,” he says.
Drought and distress perhaps explain why the formerly communally sensitive district saw barely a whimper when in March, the State Cabinet — following Supreme Court directions — accepted a three-member committee report which recommended status quo. The Shah Khadri (hereditary administrator) will be the administrator of the shrine and performer of rituals. The decade-and-a-half movement — which in its start helped the BJP win four of the seven seats in a district where they had never won even a single seat before — had come full circle.
Wilting areca trees, vast expanses of dry lakes and barren, abandoned fields pockmark the area where drought was an infrequent visitor. In the Kadur constituency nearby, Basappa is in charge of ensuring five tanker loads of water — each at ₹1,500 – is sprinkled daily on a five-acre areca plantation. Two acres of the crop has already been lost.
“When one has to dig more than 1,000 feet to get water, we cannot have the mental space to think about Datta Peeta,” says Mohan Gowda, a BJP supporter who had also taken part in the numerous rallies.
Even in the office of Mr. Ravi, who has filed a review petition with the Supreme Court, workers agree that water is important, Datta Peeta is secondary.
“People need to be made aware that our government had suggested a Hindu priest must be appointed, but the Congress government changed it ... This has to spread among the people,” Mr. Ravi says. “But Datta Peeta is not a movement for elections. It is a long-term struggle for justice.”
