Overview

• Shivakumar recited the opening lines of the RSS prayer during a heated Assembly debate on the Chinnaswamy Stadium stampede that killed 11 people, drawing bench‑thumping from BJP members as many in Congress sat silent.
• The video circulated widely on social media, where some users and analysts speculated it could be a message to the Congress high command, a reading that remains unconfirmed.
• He later reiterated he is "a born Congressman" and cast the move as opposition research, saying he studies political organisations and the RSS’s institutional reach in Karnataka.
• Congress MLA H. D. Ranganath praised the anthem as a "very good song," sang a line publicly, and said the party can accept good things from others, even as he rejected the RSS’s ideology.
• The moment revived an old admission that Shivakumar attended RSS shakhas as a schoolboy and followed earlier scrutiny over his cross‑cutting appearances, but there has been no indication of party disciplinary action.