The BJP district unit president Mangala Somashekar has landed in a soup for ‘inadvertent’ usage of a word perceived to slight a section of the society.
The party had submitted a memorandum to the district administration in Mysuru on Wednesday asking it to deny permission for the conduct of Mahisha Dasara being organised by social activist groups and writers since the last few years.
The memorandum said no permission should be issued to the “shudra forces’’ and this has drawn flak from various quarters as it was sought to brand Dalits and other OBC groups as being hostile or despicable.
Ms. Somashekar on Thursday issued an unequivocal apology and said the usage was a typo and had replaced the Kannada word ‘kshudra’, meaning to say evil or despicable, with ‘shudra’ as if referring to a group or a community. She said this was an inadvertent error and there was no motive to hurt the sentiments of any section of the society.
However, the party reiterated that permission should be denied to conduct Mahisha Dasara by various groups who have announced that they would go ahead with the event on October 5.
The BJP memorandum said that Dasara was being celebrated to mark the victory of good over evil as symbolised by the slaying of the demon Mahishasura by Goddess Chamundeshwari. But the so-called progressive thinkers are sending a wrong signal to the society by insisting on celebrating the demonaic qualities, according to the BJP activists in the region.
The conduct of Mahisha Dasara is a recent development and in 2019 there was tension as the Mysuru MP Mr.Pratap Simha got the venue cleared and asked the followers of Mahisha to celebrate the event at home.
Shivaramu, president of the OBC Forum, said the usage was deliberate and is in sync with the mindset of the BJP. “We will file a complaint and seek action against Ms. Mangala Somashekar for caste abuse’’, he added and sought her dismissal from the party’s district unit president’s post.
The Mahisha Dasara is not against any community or beliefs and the BJP was deliberately stoking communal sentiments in the society for political gains, said Mr. Shivaramu.
