'Congress leaders diverting from main Waqf issue,' says MLC Go Madhusudhan

Mysuru: Some Congress ministers, MLAs and leaders are trying to divert the attention of the people from the main Waqf issue, by alleging that BJP state President B Y Vijayendra tried to bribe former Minorities Commission chairman Anwar Manippady, said former MLC Go Madhusudhan.

Addressing a media conference, in Mysuru, on Monday, Madhusudhan, who was chairman of the Legislative Privileges Committee from 2013 to 2015 described the allegations made by Information Technology and Biotechnology Minister Priyank Kharge and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, that Vijayendra offered Rs 150 crore to Manipaddy, a BJP colleague, to remain silent on the Wakf Board property encroachment issue, as the ‘biggest joke of the year’.

Madhusudan asked, “Isn't it funny to say that the son of the former chief minister of the same party, B S Yediyurappa, is giving money to a BJP leader, to remain silent on the allegations against Congress leaders?”

He explained that a report, including survey numbers, where Wakf properties were misused and encroached upon, was submitted to Siddaramaiah himself, during his earlier term as CM by the late Upalokayukta Justice Anand, following a government order.

Madhusudan accused Kharge of making baseless allegations, out of fear of losing his usurped property in Kalaburagi. “Kharge and his family members have encroached upon land of the darga of Muslim saint Khwaja Bande Nawaz. Similarly, many Muslim leaders and a few Hindu leaders have usurped properties worth over Rs 2.39 lakh crore, valued over a decade ago. Now, its worth would cross Rs 5 lakh crore. The report of the late Justice Anand, which was a followup of Manippady’s report, should be tabled before the Legislature and made public, to understand who all have usurped the properties,” he said.

He advised Siddaramaiah to auction the looted Wakf properties, instead of struggling to fund his pet 'guarantee' schemes. He retorted, “People are not sheep, to accept everything that the ministers and Chief Minister tell, just because they speak on the floor of the house”.

BJP city president L Nagendra, rural district president L R Mahadevaswamy, city media coordinator Mahesh Raje Urs and co-coordinator B M Santosh Kumar were present during the press conference.