Bengaluru Idgah row: A pot kept on steady simmer ahead of 2023 polls

On Independence Day, the state revenue department itself hoisted the national flag at the Idgah Maidan for the first time with the support of local Muslim and Hindu groups. At the time it had seemed that the conflict over the land had been addressed by the BJP government with the move to take over the land.

With the Hindu festive season – beginning with Ganesh Chathurthi on August 31 – appearing on the horizon, the dispute over the Idgah Maidan was reignited through a challenge by the Wakf board to the BBMP’s claim on the land amid demands by small right-wing groups for the BBMP to allow them to host the Ganesh festival at the property.

On August 25, following a challenge by the Wakf Board to the BBMP decision to recognise the Idgah Maidan as a property of the state revenue department, a single judge of the Karnataka HC ordered a stay on BBMP control of the land and allowed use of the land as it was done prior to the BBMP order – for Ramzan and Bakrid, as a playground, and for Independence and Republic Day celebrations.

The next day, the BJP government moved a division bench of the Karnataka HC seeking modification of the single-judge order by claiming that Bengaluru city authorities had received five applications from various groups to use the Idgah Maidan on August 31 (Ganesh Chathurthi) for “holding religious and cultural activities” and that the state should be allowed to decide on the use of the land.

The HC division bench accepted the plea and granted the state government the freedom to decide on use of the ground for Ganesh Chathurthi resulting in the Wakf Board approaching the Supreme Court.

The Wakf Board’s refusal to allow activities of other religions on the Idgah Maidan — while the rights over the land is in dispute — and the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government’s attempt to emerge as a true upholder of Hindu faith through the Idgah Maidan issue has resulted in tension in the region.

The emergence of this latest conflict — after a listless three years of the BJP government’s tenure, which has been marked by allegations of corruption and internal conflicts — is widely seen as being dictated by an agenda to create communal conflict in the run-up to the 2023 state polls.

The communal controversy over the Idgah Maidan in Bengaluru – which did not exist for over three decades – and a controversy over the Idgah Maidan in Hubbali, which saw flare-ups in the 1990s, have emerged as the latest of many recent communal flashpoints in the state.

The Bengaluru Idgah Maidan issue is also being kept alive by the right-wing with a possible eye on elections to the Bengaluru city council that could be held before the end of the year. The term of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike ended in September 2020.

In the past, the Kannada Rajyotsava (state formation day) and Ganesha festivals were being organised along with Bakrid and Ramzan at the maidan, say locals. However, in 1983, the Bakrid and Ganesha festival fell on the same day leading to communal tensions.

While the Bakrid celebrations passed off peacefully on July 10 this year — in the region where the Congress’s B Z Zameer Ahmed is the local MLA — there is apprehension that the Idgah Maidan will emerge as a sore point ahead of other festivals, including Navratri and Diwali, over the coming year if a clear-cut verdict does not emerge from the courts.

According to sources in the BJP, the party does not see the Idgah Maidan issue as being restricted only to the Chamrajpet constituency — a traditional stronghold of the Congress and considered an electoral safe haven by stalwarts like S M Krishna (who won the seat in 2004) and current leader Siddaramaiah (who has been offered the seat by Zameer Ahmed for the 2023 polls) – and that the party will capitalise on reverberations that might be felt across the state, as in the case of the 1994 battle for the Hubballi Idgah grounds.

The incidents of 1994 paid political dividends to the BJP almost a decade-and-a-half later, in 2008, when the party won 110 seats — after making gradual political inroads through the 1999 and 2004 state polls. Several political leaders of the BJP earned their stripes through the Idgah Maidan row of 1994, including former Union minister Ananth Kumar Hegde.

The Chamrajpet Idgah Maidan issue has reportedly figured in discussions that RSS leaders have held with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in recent times. Sources in the BJP said the party wants to keep the Idgah Maidan issue alive and in the public domain.