For weeks, the communally-sensitive Honnavar town in coastal Karnataka was on the edge after the mysterious death of 19-year-old Paresh Mesta on 21 December 2017.
A day after Paresh’s death, while the town was still under curfew in fear of communal flare up, his father, Kamalakar Mesta, had come out categorically denying that his son was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or any other political party.
More than two months later, on Saturday, 3 March 2018, Kamalakar was seen sharing the dais with Union Minister Anantkumar Hegde to launch the BJP's Karnataka Surakasha Yatre (march for Karnataka's security).
The march was part of the BJP’s political strategy to make murders of Hindu activists into a statewide election issue and consolidate the fragmented Hindu votes in coastal Karnataka using the religion card.