Kumaraswamy's Muslim outreach rudderless

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru

Union Minister HD Kumara swamy is reaching out to Muslim voters in the Channapatna Assembly seat on behalf of his son and JD(S) candidate Nikhil but it appears to be mired in mixed messaging. On the one hand, the former chief minister is trying to woo Muslim voters but on the other, he is forced to affirm narratives from ally BJP that are explicitly hostile to the minority community. Kumaraswamy on October 27 met with local Muslim members of civil society and tried to convince them to vote for Nikhil, invoking party patriarch and father HD Devegowda’s legacy. When asked by mediapersons about the visit, he said: “We have to take along all communities.” On October 30, he visited the Hazrat Aqeel Shah Qadri dargah, the shrine of a sufi saint.

However, the visits have been interspersed with Kumaraswamy echoing the BJP’s narrative on the waqf row, even backing the Centre’s waqf controversial Bill. Notices were issued by the local tehsildar to 124 farmers in Honavada village of Tikota taluk in Vijayapura district, communicating that the state waqf board was claiming their land back in mid-October. Later, the State government said there was an error in a gazette notification, which incorrectly claimed 1,200 acres as waqf land in the village when it was only 11 acres. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah assured that the notices would be withdrawn and that no one would be evicted, but the Opposition NDA has continued its protests. “Today, in Karnataka, there is an atmosphere wherein farmers are terrified. I noticed in the papers that the same issue has cropped up in Dharwad.

Circumstances have emerged where four people, be they from the (Muslim) community or not, are illegally snatching government and farmers’ lands,” Kumaraswamy told mediapersons on Wednesday, adding that the Congress State government was doing this to “woo” a community. He made no mention of even the possibility of the encroachment of waqf lands.