BJP stages walk-out over waqf; Byre Gowda says Oppn lied about issue

NT Belagavi

The Opposition BJP staged a walk-out of the Assembly at Belagavi’s Suvarna Vidhana Soudha on Wednesday, citing unsatisfactory answers by the Chief Minister over the waqf issue. It is to be noted that for the second time, BJP MLAs ST Somashekhar and Shivaram Hebbar defied Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Assembly R Ashoka and stayed in the Assembly despite the walk-out by party mates. The saffron party has launched a campaign accusing the Karnataka State Board of Auqaaf (KSBA) of falsely claiming land belonging to farmers on a large scale all over Karnataka.

The walk-out didn’t stop Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda from offering a case-wise breakdown of waqf disputes, alleging that the BJP had misrepresented facts and set the stage for communal conflagration in the state. The issue had gained traction back in October with Honavada village in Tikota taluk of Vijayapura district wherein a gazette notification had caused a waqf board to represented as 1,200 acres rather than 11 acres. “On Honavada, MB Patil (Vijayapura district in-charge) has said a 100 times and I’ll say it again.

The waqf land in question is only 11.08 acres rather than 1,200 acres as it is made out to be,” Byre Gowda, adding that the BJP was indulging in “political hypocrisy”. Revenue Minister cited other examples such as a Beera Deva temple in Aland taluk in Kalaburagi district, whose status was changed to waqf board under the previous BJP government. “We have changed the pahani (Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops) in the name of the temple,” he said, adding that Minister for Waqf and Minority Welfare Zameer Ahmed and Muslim Personal Law Board had cooperated in the same. “In Haveri district, a farmer namely Rudrappa Chandrappa Balikai in Haveri district had died of suicide back in January 2022.

It was falsely claimed that he took his life because his land was claimed by the waqf board,” Byre Gowda said. On the issue raised by Ashoka concerning Munesghwar Nagar in Krishna Raja Assembly constituency near Mysuru city where 110 Kuruba families reside over land claimed by the waqf, the minister pointed out that under the previous BJP government, the Chief Secretary had recommended to cut off the electricity supply to said houses.

Byre Gowda pointed out that the BJP in its 2014 manifesto had promised protection of waqf properties. He even translated former CM Basavaraj Bommai’s speech in his old seat Shiggaon from Urdu to Kannada wherein he had vowed to recover waqf properties “all over the state just as we have done in Nelamangala”.

Saffron party exposed: Rizwan

Speaking exclusively to News Trail, Congress MLA from Shivajinagar Rizwan Arshad said that the BJP had been exposed over the waqf issue and had walked out to avoid embarrassment. “They (BJP) had no courage to face the truth. They knew they had created a false case and conspired against the Muslim community and targeted them through the waqf issue.

They had created a huge political narrative against the Muslim community through waqf. They feared that they would get exposed with facts and figures in the Assembly by our government. That is why they boycotted the proceedings,” he said.