BJP holds stir, wants Wakf report tabled in session

BJP legislators staged a protest in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Vidhana Soudha on Thursday demanding that the controversial Anwar Manippady report on encroachment of Wakf properties be tabled in the legislature.

The saffron party also sought a CBI probe into the alleged multi-crore Wakf property scam.

“The Congress-JD(S) coalition masquerades as the champion of minorities. If the government is truly committed, why isn’t the Manippady report being tabled in the legislature, despite strictures from courts,” BJP general secretary C T Ravi said, addressing the protestors.

The report had charged that Wakf properties to the tune of Rs 2 lakh crore had been encroached upon across the state and had named several state and national Congress leaders. Manippady, former chairman of the Karnataka State Minority Commission who prepared the report, submitted it to the government in March 2012 when the BJP was in power. “There’s a threat to my life. Even this morning I received an internet call. But I will not stop demanding justice,” Manippady said.

BJP leaders Abdul Azeem, R Ashoka, S Suresh Kumar, D H Shankaramurthy, Kota Srinivas Poojary, Mahantesh Kavatagimath and others took part in the protest.