Politics in Karnataka has long thrived on temple turf wars, but the storm around Dharmasthala—one of South India’s most revered shrines—has taken an extraordinary twist. What began as a chilling testimony has now turned on its head, with the so-called whistleblower himself confessing that it was all part of a larger conspiracy to defame the temple. The state government, caught in the crossfire, has agreed to probe the confession. The big question now: who orchestrated this smear, and did the Congress government’s gambit backfire?
The controversy was triggered by a six-page statement from a former sanitation worker at the Dharmasthala Manjunathaswamy Temple complex. In July, he resurfaced after nearly a decade in hiding, spinning a macabre tale of murders, sexual assaults, and mass burials within temple grounds. He claimed he had dug graves under duress and lived in fear of being killed if he revealed the truth. The allegations were explosive enough to shake public faith in Dharmasthala, an institution presided over since 1968 by Dharmadhikari Veerendra Heggade, whose stature straddles religion, society, and politics. The BJP cemented that influence further in 2022 by nominating Heggade to the Rajya Sabha.
The Congress government, quick to pounce, constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT). Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar thundered that no one would be spared. The move, however, immediately invited suspicion. To the BJP, this was a calculated assault on a Hindu shrine with deep roots in the party’s ecosystem, an attempt to discredit both temple and tradition under the cover of law.
But then came the twist. The whistleblower, under sustained questioning, confessed that his testimony was fabricated as part of a conspiracy to malign Dharmasthala. The government has now announced it will investigate this confession, tacitly admitting that its aggressive posturing may have been built on quicksand. Which begs the question: who pushed the worker to weave such a damaging tale? Was he acting alone, or was he a pawn in a larger political chess game?
For Congress, the episode is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can claim it acted promptly and transparently by forming the SIT. On the other hand, if the entire case collapses as a concocted plot, the party risks being accused of weaponizing falsehoods against Hindu institutions—an error that could hand the BJP a potent electoral narrative. The government’s attempt to project itself as uncompromising on law and order may have misfired spectacularly.
The ghosts of the past still loom. Dharmasthala has not been untouched by scandal—be it the 1987 rape and murder of a teenager near the shrine or the 2012 Soujanya case that dragged on for years before being closed in 2023. Women’s groups have demanded that these cases be revisited, pointing to a history of cover-ups. Against this backdrop, the SIT’s very credibility is now in question. If its latest probe fizzles out, it will strengthen suspicions that the entire exercise was a political stunt rather than a search for truth.
So far, skeletal remains were indeed unearthed from excavation sites, but without decisive forensic evidence, the narrative has swung dangerously. The whistleblower’s volte-face has left both the Congress government and its SIT dangling—uncertain whether they have exposed a crime or walked into a trap.
For now, Dharmasthala remains suspended between reverence and ridicule, its sanctity bruised by allegations that may never stand the test of truth. What could have been a straightforward pursuit of justice has morphed into a political circus. Did the Congress overreach in its zeal to target a shrine with BJP links? Did its strategy boomerang, turning a would-be scandal into a narrative of victimhood for Hindu institutions?
As the dust settles, one fact stands out: in Karnataka’s polarized politics, truth is often the first casualty. And in the Dharmasthala row, the real culprits—those who scripted this conspiracy—remain in the shadows.
