Karnataka Waqf Row: Is BJP Escalating the Issue for the Upcoming Bypolls?

BJP workers stage a protest following allegations by farmers in several parts of Karnataka that their lands were marked as Waqf Board properties, in Chikkamagaluru district, Karnataka, on November 4, 2024.

(Photo: PTI)

The actions of a public servant in Tikota taluk of Vijayanagar district in Karnataka, 525 km from Bengaluru, who is reported to have shared a gazette notification of 1974, where some tracts of lands were erroneously shown as property belonging to the State Board of Auqaf (Waqf), though the error was rectified in another notification issued in 1977, has fuelled state-wide agitations by farmers.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (Secular-JDS), supporting the farmers' cause, have accused the Congress-ruled government of usurping the lands of farmers, Hindu religious institutions (mutts), and some monuments, by claiming them as Waqf properties for appeasement politics.

Though Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on 2 November ordered revenue department officials to immediately withdraw notices issued to farmers concerning the claims around the Waqf land, the controversy, which originated from Vijayapura and spread to districts across the state, is yet to die down. A statement from the CMO directed that any unauthorised changes made to land records or the Records of Rights, Tenancy and Crops without prior notice or legal procedures should be nullified.

However, the NDA allies, capitalising on the farmers' protests over the notices issued to them, hope to consolidate the Hindu votes in the three bypoll-bound constituencies of Channapatna, Shiggaon and Sandur. The controversy erupted over the Waqf adalats that were held to update records regarding their properties, a continuous process in every government.

Sources acquainted with the ongoing controversy told The Quint that after a Waqf adalat in early October, a public servant is said to have mischievously accessed the 1974 gazette notification of a Waqf property in Mahal Bagayat village, five kilometres from Vijayapura city, where another village Honwad, in Tikota taluk of the same district, was shown in brackets by mistake.

The error that 1,200 acres of farmland in Honwad belongs to Waqf was rectified in the 1977 gazette notification, which set the record straight, stating only 11 acres of land in survey number 10 in Honwad is of Waqf. But the damage had been done, with panicked farmers resorting to protests. Honwad village comes under the Bableshwar taluk of Vijayapura district, the constituency represented by Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development Minister MB Patil.

Protesting farmers approached BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, who is also a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) constituted to elicit opinion on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024, which seeks to amend the Waqf Act 1995, and repeal the Mussalman Waqf Act 1923.

Surya told the media on 31 October that there had been a sudden and unauthorised transfer of farmers' lands to the Waqf board and that he had written to the JPC that during his interaction with farmers from Vijayapura district on 29 October, they had stated that their century-old cultivated lands, with records dating back to the 1920s and 1930s, had been served notices declaring them as Waqf property. He petitioned JPC chairperson Jagdambika Pal, who is visiting Vijayapura and Hubballi to interact with farmers on 7 November.

The charges around land grabbing and appeasement politics have caused concern within the Congress' circles in the background of three bypolls being held on November 13. A section of the 136 Congress MLAs has now decided to write to All India Congress Committee President Mallikarjun Kharge, seeking his intervention to check polarisation. Kharge hails from Kalaburagi, which is also on the radar of the BJP's criticism against the government.

After the controversy spread to other districts, three ministers, i.e., revenue minister Krishna Byregowda, minority affairs and Waqfs in charge BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan, and even Patil, held a joint presser on 29 October to de-escalate the issue. Patil said that BJP leaders were misleading the people by giving false and unsubstantiated information on Waqf properties.

"BJP leaders are claiming that the government is acquiring the land of Hindus and getting it registered as Waqf properties in the Vijayapura district. Leave alone acquiring land, the board has not even issued any notice to any farmer in Tikota taluk or Honwad village."

MB Patil

Gowda called it a “procedural lapse” and said that mutations had been done without following the due process of issuing notices to the concerned. According to Khan, the land under the Waqf board in Karnataka was estimated to be 1.12 lakh acres some years ago, but owing to encroachments, this is now less than a quarter of that, at 23,860 acres. In Vijayapura district, the total extent of the Waqf land, as per the 1974 gazette, was 14,201 acres, but now this is 773 acres because 11,835 acres were granted to farmers under the Land Reforms Act, 133 acres were acquired for various government projects, and the remaining were given as a grant.

Sources said that some typo errors had resulted in these historical blunders, further citing the example of a land parcel in Sindhagi taluk of Vijayapura district. According to them, in one case, the Waqf board owned 5.36 acres of land under survey number 1029, while a mutt had 1.36 acres of land under survey number 1020.

"Instead of notifying land under survey number 1029 as belonging to Waqf, the government order mentioned survey number 1020. That's enough for people to get agitated. In India, the taluk the tahsildar, without hearing had issued notices to 41 properties and registered them as Waqf properties, some of which were not.”

Sources

To counter the BJP's charge of appeasement politics, a video clipping of BJP MP Basavaraj Bommai, who is seen exhorting Muslims in a meeting to secure Waqf properties from encroachments, was released by the Congress party. The clipping shared on social media shows Bommai during his tenure as chief minister describing Waqf land as "khuda ki property (property of God)" at a waqf board event. "If that is looted, if you keep your eyes closed (when the property is looted), you will be more guilty than those who loot the land," he says in the clip, adding that more than Rs 2,000 crore worth of Waqf properties are registered in the names of private individuals.

Reacting to the video, Bommai said he had only asked the Waqf board to reclaim its properties encroached upon by some senior Congress leaders, who have been named in the report submitted by Anwar Manipaddy. The latter, as chairman of the State Minorities Commission, had submitted a report in 2012 on Waqf properties encroached, where he had named senior Congress leaders.

Siddaramaiah retaliated to the protests, stating that 216 notices seeking the acquisition of Waqf land were issued when the BJP and JD(S) were in power. He said that the notices were issued during the tenure of his predecessors BS Yediyurappa, DV Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar and HD Kumaraswamy. "Why were these notices issued then and why is the BJP silent about them now," he asked, adding that the documents pertaining to the 216 notices will be released shortly.

On 4 November, the state BJP held protests across the state seeking the withdrawal of the 1974 gazette notification pertaining to Waqf properties along with Khan's resignation. Leading the protests, BJP state president BY Vijayendra said, "Initially the government denied issuing notices. But when the farmers protested, Siddaramaiah directed officials not to issue and withdraw the ones given, keeping in mind the three bypolls. What is the guarantee that notices will not be issued once the bypolls are over?"

Opposition leader R Ashoka claimed that the government was indulging in "Waqf Jihad" and the land belonging to Hindus was being usurped. Ashoka has also written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the JPC chairperson demanding "immediate cessation" of all Waqf registrations in Karnataka.

Patil told The Quint after the protests started in Vijayapura, as district in-charge minister, he had constituted a task force committee to verify and update properties prior to the 1974 notification. He said that if any land prior to 1974 is being held by a farmer, it will be deleted and those confirmed as belonging to Waqf will be part of the updated revenue records. According to the Karnataka State Board of Auqaf website, about 47,313 Waqfs are registered with the board and most of these are in Vijayapura, Kalaburagi, and Bidar.

Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Priyank Kharge told the media that nothing happened when 216 notices were issued during BJP CMs' tenure. "Did the Waqf board shut its doors during the BJP regime? Nothing happened then. The day the bypolls in Karnataka and Assembly elections in Maharashtra are over, this issue will be dead," he stated.

(Naheed Ataulla is a senior political journalist based in Bengaluru.)