Bengaluru, 28 June

Karnataka Senior BJP leader R Ashoka on Sunday raked up the Waqf land issue, alleging that the "appeasement politics" is threatening the livelihood of farmers in the State.

He accused the Karnataka government of endangering farmers' land rights by allegedly allowing Waqf references to be entered in land records, and demanded that the exercise be stopped immediately.

In a post on 'X', Ashoka, who is the leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, alleged that Waqf references had already been entered in the RTCs of more than 1.8 lakh farmers and that the process was being extended to cover three lakh RTCs across 31 districts.

He also demanded a White Paper on the issue.

"By dragging farmers' lands into the Waqf controversy, whose interests is the Congress government protecting? The appeasement and vote-bank politics of the @INCKarnataka government have now reached a stage where they threaten the very existence of the state's farmers," he said.

Ashoka said that if the reports were incorrect, the government should immediately place the facts before the people, but if such entries had indeed been made, it must explain why farmers were facing uncertainty over selling their land, obtaining bank loans and exercising ownership rights.

Ashoka claimed that, according to the media reports, Waqf references had been entered in more than 1.8 lakh Records of Rights Tenancy and Crops (RTC) and that the process could eventually cover three lakh RTCs affecting farmers in 31 districts.

He said the figures included 73,000 RTCs in Uttara Kannada, 48,000 in Dakshina Kannada, 38,000 in Shivamogga, 18,000 in Bengaluru South, and 17,000 each in Kalaburagi and Bagalkote.

He demanded that the government immediately halt the process, review all disputed entries in farmers' RTCs and release a White Paper before the people.

"The farmer's land and their rights must be protected. We will never allow farmers' land to be swallowed in the name of Waqf under any circumstances!" Ashoka said.