On Tuesday, cars after luxury cars of leaders of Hindutwa organisations and the BJP were making their way to the house of Harsha, the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishat activist who was killed late on Sunday night at Shivamogga, to pay their condolences. But given how narrow the road is, all of them had to get off some distance away and walk to the house in Kumbara Beedi in Seegehatti locality.
On Sunday night, Harsha, who introduced himself ‘Harsha Hindu’ on his social media account, was murdered by a group of people near Bharati Colony. He had gone out for dinner. Around 9.30 p.m., his father Nagaraj, a tailor, got information that his son had been attacked.
Did not return
Harsha’s mother was inconsolable. “We constructed this house after borrowing ₹10 lakh, hoping that my son would live here. He was fond of chicken and mutton. On Sunday he went out to have food as non-vegetarian meals were not cooked for dinner owing to Sankashti vrita,” she said. She pleaded with the leaders visiting her for justice. “No family should go through this,” she said. The father Nagaraj, who recently underwent a cataract surgery, was resting in another room.
Harsha's sisters, meanwhile, were out to collect ashes from the crematorium. "I was asked to look for some bones for a ritual. I cannot tell you how distressing it was. My brother is just ashes today," said Ashwini, one of the two sisters.
Talking to the media with folded hands, Ms. Ashwini said she would appeal to all youth, irrespective of their religion, to give up hatred and treat each other as brothers. "I am not saying this to people of one particular community. All are children to their parents. Give up hatred. If something happens to you, it is your parents who suffer," she said. She said she had no idea who was behind her brother's murder.
Neither Harsha, nor his sisters, Ashwini and Rajani, studied beyond SSL. With his meagre earning, his father could build a small house in this old locality of the city and conduct the marriages of his two daughters. Ms. Ashwini, who stays in Bengaluru, runs a beauty parlour. Ms. Rajani lives with her family in Shivamogga.
While Ms. Ashwini made an emotional appeal, leaders visiting their house spoke in a different tenor.
Leaders speak
Yashpal Suvarna, president, Fish Marketing Federation, speaking to media after meeting the family members said, "Harsha was killed because he was a Hindu. We will make all efforts to ensure the family gets justice. We know who did it and also know how to respond."
D.N. Jeevaraj, political secretary to Chief Minister, said, “the time has come for Hindus to wake up.” Santosh Guruji, a seer, gave a call for a “Dharma Sangrama.”
After giving bytes to media, they left, leaving the family to deal with their grief.
