Bengaluru, 29 Oct

Karnataka Industries Minister MB Patil on Tuesday accused BJP of promoting a "fake Hindu love" stance through misinformation, as he claimed that notices were served to farmers in Vijayapura district by the Waqf Board between 2019 and 2022, when the saffron party was in power.

Posting the copies of notices issued during BJP rule on 'X', Patil criticised the party for engaging in "divisive politics," rather than focusing on the State’s development during its tenure. There are allegations by a section of farmers from Vijayapura district that their lands were marked as Waqf properties.

"Farmers' ancestral land was all of a sudden claimed as Waqf property, farmers will come on the streets, what should they do.... Congress is indulging in appeasing minorities and thereby dividing the country in the name of the religion, they have been doing it for long. They are trying to incite fire in the State under the leadership of Zameer Ahemed Khan (Waqf Minister)," he said.

"If the BJP had not taken this issue seriously, the farmers would have come to the streets. After we raised the issue they formed the task force and asked farmers to approach the Deputy Commissioner," he said.

Noting that BJP has reconstituted its fact-finding committee on the Waqf issue, that was initially set up by Vijayendra, after facing backlash from its own leader Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, Patil said that the addition of Yatnal and MP Ramesh Jigajinagi to the panel appears tokenistic, indicating internal struggles within the party. -PTI