The TLDR: The Bangalore MP made waves when he alleged a Muslim conspiracy to divert hospital beds. But the entire drama had more to do with his determination to embarrass Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa than his distasteful Hindutva politics. We looked at the so-called hospital bed scam and political drama behind it. 

Researched by: Sara Varghese and Vagda Galhotra. 

Remind me about Tejasvi Surya…

A Hindutva hatemonger: The 30-year-old politician is the BJP MP from Bangalore South—one of the wealthiest constituencies in the city—and the national president of BJP’s youth wing. Surya was handpicked as a candidate by PM Modi and Amit Shah in the 2019 elections—and is known to be their blue-eyed boy. Surya’s biggest qualification: 

“He is enterprising, educated, social media savvy and, most importantly, has no qualms in polarising Hindutva rhetoric against Muslims on demand… The BJP desperately needs to identify a strong, smart and bankable young leader, so it can weave a projection of being a party with a future and not one that is relying just on its current successful run. It also needs Modi-Shah to be seen as actively grooming the youngest lot.”

Some examples of that polarising rhetoric: 

• “If Tamil has to survive, Hindutva has to win.” 
• “95% Arab women have never had an orgasm in the last few hundred years.” 
• Also: “BJP should unapologetically be a party for Hindus.”
• His speech is so incendiary that the government asked Twitter to block one of his tweets which said: “In short: true, terror has no religion. But the terrorist definitely has a religion, and in most cases it’s Islam.”

A rivalry with BSY: Back in September—at a press conference with Home Minister Amit Shah, no less—Surya called Bangalore an “incubation centre” for terrorists, causing great consternation among his own party ranks. Political observers widely agreed the salvo was aimed not so much at local Muslims but Yediyurappa.

And here’s why: Surya is very close to RSS leader B L Santosh who is currently the General Secretary of the BJP. And Santosh—whose home turf is Karnataka—has ambitions of replacing BSY—much as Modi went from RSS pracharak to Gujarat CM. In Santosh’s corner: Amit Shah who has never been fond of BSY:

“Yediyurappa has already crossed the Modi and Shah-imposed age limit of 75 when senior leaders are put out to pasture. Shah and Modi have never been particularly fond of BSY who is less obsequious with them that appears to have become customary within their party.”

So Surya’s political outbursts are often poorly disguised salvos aimed at BSY—acting as a proxy for Shah/Santosh. 

So what happened with the bed scam?

The allegation: On Tuesday, Surya held a press conference alleging widespread corruption of Covid beds in Bangalore (watch him here). He claimed that an investigation by his office had unearthed a “dishonourable and an unholy nexus” of zonal helpline workers, BBMP (municipal authority) officials and hospitals to create a “bribe for bed” scam. The alleged MO:

“Mr Surya alleged the beds were being initially reserved in the names of Covid patients in home isolation who were unaware of the allotment. After they failed to show up for admission the bed was ‘auto un-blocked’, he said, claiming this had happened ‘in thousands of cases’. BBMP officials would then, he said, find someone to ‘buy’ the bed.”

The communal angle: In a clip circulated soon after the presser, Surya shows up at one of the Covid war rooms—along with three MLAs Ravi Subramanya (also his uncle), Uday Garudachar and Satish Reddy. He then reads out 16 Muslim names and asks the basis on which they were hired. Subramanya jumps in to ask: “Only these people are sending applications? Are you hiring for a corporation or a Madarasa?” Watch the clip below:

The clip went instantly viral, shared along with hateful messages such as: “List of terrorists working in BBMP WAR ROOM killing thousands of Bengalurians.” Never mind that the war room employs 205 workers—but the others on the list are inconveniently not Muslim.

Also convenient: The fact that the BJP is in charge of the BBMP and the city’s mayor is also a BJP man—which is why the opposition parties jumped on Surya’s allegations and demanded an investigation. More interestingly, the war room visited by Surya is supervised by Revenue Minister R Ashoka—a BSY supporter and a man not fond of toeing the RSS line. And is there anything odder than a ruling party member making a public spectacle of corruption within his own party?

Timing samajhiye: What’s interesting is that Surya chose to lob this bombshell at his own party at this time. Various media outlets earlier flagged Surya’s absence from the national debate—noting he was ‘missing’ from discussions over the second wave, elections and other headlines. And this at a time when Congress Youth party president BV Srinivas has been earning rave reviews for his relief efforts. Ironically, Surya responded to The Print: “I am busy with legislative work in my constituency. Also, I get more opportunities to speak in the party and affect changes, so the less I need to speak out.” He’s clearly changed his mind. 

So is any of this true? 

One: Of the 16 Muslims mentioned, only one of them was on bed allocation duty. And yet all of them were detained at the local police station and held overnight. One of them said: “They took our bank and family details, checked our phones, opened all our personal chats. They repeatedly asked us about our role in bed blocking.”

Two: The bigger issue in Bangalore is not the availability of hospital beds per se—but the scarcity of ICU beds. This distinction appears to be lost on Surya. That said, there have been documented cases of fraud. For example: Three hospital workers were arrested in an unconnected case for selling an ICU bed for Rs 1.2 lakhs. And an investigation that followed Surya’s allegations has resulted in the arrest of two doctors, a social worker and her relative—but none of them were on the list of Muslim names recited by him.

Three: Surya’s hateful clip spawned a number of WhatsApp forwards naming BBMP  joint commissioner Sarfaraz Khan—who then had to issue a pained denial. He handles Covid Care Centres and solid waste management—not war rooms or bed allocation. Khan then filed a complaint with the Bengaluru Police Commissioner, and Surya has issued an apology for dragging him into this mess.

Four: A local Kannada newspaper (flagged by subscriber Namitha M) points its finger at one of Surya’s buddies—Satish Reddy who can be seen in the infamous war room clip. Reddy has been accused of planting his people in the war room to reserve as many as 80% of the beds—which he then doles out as favours. Times Now also refers to Reddy in a similar report: 

“Last week, a man who had no business in the BBMP War Room was seen roaming around, instructing staff to allot beds to asymptomatic people. The man, said to be a close aide of Satish Reddy was shunted out of the War Room on Thursday when BBMP officials paid a surprise visit to the war room.” 

The Congress has now latched on to Reddy and Surya—implying that the entire PR exercise was a clever diversion.

So what’s happening now?

Thanks to the multiple raids on war rooms, the emergency effort in Bangalore has been badly damaged. One official told The Hindu:

“Many are youth taken on contractual basis to work in these call centres. The police have not harassed anyone, but these youngsters and their parents are scared. Many have stopped coming, some have quit. We are struggling to keep pace with emergency calls.”

Also, the South Bangalore war room targeted by Surya is now struggling with 40% absenteeism. One of the workers said: “If we say there is no ICU bed, people ask our names to find out which community we belong to. Some offer us money for a bed, others abuse us.”

The belated apology: Surya has now made a second visit to the war room and apologised:

"I have nothing personal against any of you. If anyone or any community is hurt emotionally by my visit, I apologise for that. I wanted to probe the bed allocation scam which had come to my notice, but if my actions had hurt anyone, please accept my apologies."

The bottomline: Powerful men play their great political game. Ordinary people are merely collateral damage.

Reading list

The Print has two good reads: A profile of Surya, and a piece on his struggle to remain relevant during the second wave. The News Minute has more on Surya’s allegations, and the consequences for the 16 men named by Surya. Caravan has a must-read on Bangalore’s losing struggle to beat back the pandemic. The Hindu has a good read on the damage done to war rooms in the city. NDTV analyses the nasty struggle within the state BJP party.