Hubbali Idgah row: 1994 firing victim’s father refuses felicitation, ‘won’t be pawn to politics’

His son Manjunath was only 12, recalled Barad, who has three other children and retired as a welding fabrication worker. Speaking to The Indian Express, he said: “Manjunath was playing outdoors when he suddenly rushed into the house on hearing gunfire. Later, he realised that he had left his slippers behind on the road, and went to get them. He never made it back.”

Unable to shake off the memory of Manjunath’s death, the family left their house near the Idgah ground and moved to a different residence for nearly 10 years.

Furious over how things have blown up again, Barad says: “Hoisting the national flag is our right and barring us from doing so is injustice. We are fighting against this injustice even today. But all those who were killed in the August 15 firing were innocents and not a member of any organisation. Politics took centre stage then, and now after so many years, we are being called for felicitation, without giving us any prior notice. We don’t want to be pawns for somebody else’s politics.”

VHP member Su Krishnamurthy said they were not trying to do politics. “There is nothing political about remembering the deaths of our bravehearts. It is important to remember the karyakartas who sacrificed their lives for the national flag. Moreover, we planned the felicitation ceremony only after the High Court allowed us to install the Ganesha idol at the ground.”

He said as the court order came in their favour only a day before Ganesh Utsav, they didn’t get enough time to track the families of the victims. “We managed to trace only two.”

Apart from Barad, they found Gopal Rao Ranade, the elder brother of the deceased Prasanna Ranade. Nataraj Ranade, a “social worker” at a right-wing organisation called the Hindu Seva Pratishthana, says his uncle had been shot in the chest.

“My uncle was an RSS worker and he was helping those who had suffered injuries in the firing. While he was making arrangements for their medical treatment near the maidan, he was shot,” Nataraj said.

“I feel satisfied and happy that these heroes are being remembered on an auspicious occasion like Ganesha Chaturthi,” said Ranade.

In its order, the Dharwad Bench of the Karnataka High Court observed that the Idgah ground belonged to the Hubbali-Dharwad Municipal Corporation and it continued to have rights over the use of the land, having only leased it for 999 years to the Anjuman-i-Islam.

The Hubbali violence had occurred in the aftermath of the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, with the Congress government at the Centre fighting accusations of not doing enough to stop the BJP. Under pressure, the Congress government in Karnataka, led by M Veerappa Moily, was believed to have authorised harsh police action in Hubbali leading to the death of six.