Karnataka: Dargah forgotten, locals concerned about land rights, water & coffee

Indian Express, Monday, May 12, 2008

APURVA

Chikamagalur, May 11 : One of the flashpoints during the 2004 Assembly elections involved a 200-year-old dargah located in Chikamagalur district’s Baba Budan Hills. Looking for a foothold in the south, the BJP used the communal tension surrounding it to its advantage in defeating the Congress candidate from the seat. It was a major win, given that the candidate was a Muslim leader and a three-time winner in an area where the Muslims enjoyed a 20 per cent vote share.

This election, nobody is talking of the Baba Budan Dargah Inam Dattatreya Peeta here, including the BJP. It’s local issues which occupy voters’ minds, including rights of tribals in the Kudremukh reserved forests, drinking water and a failing coffee market.

The BJP’s silence, says the Congress, is understandable. “After winning, they have not done anything about the dargah, and that works to our advantage,” says Congress candidate K B Mallikarjuna.

While Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had invited a complaint from the district administration for his provocative speeches on the dargah in 2004, BJP leader Ananth Kumar had promised to make it another Ayodhya. However, on Sunday, while touring Chikamagalur, Kumar — the BJP’s Bangalore MP — made no mention of the shrine.

“Two saints, one a sufi and the other a vedic, settled in the dargah 200 years ago, and since then both Hindus and Muslims visit the shrine. However, the BJP wanted to make it a Hindu shrine and devoted their 2004 campaign to this,” says Vasu H V of the Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum.

In the streets of Chikamagalur, located 270 km from Bangalore, the dargah is a forgotten issue. Locals are more concerned about declining demand hitting the coffee plantations, and the fact that nobody is discussing it.

Chikamagalur district also has a strong Naxal presence, and recently tribal rights in the nearby Kudremukh reserved forests have emerged as a major issue. However, again, all parties remain mum on it.

Sidlingappa T G, a local shopkeeper, says: “All the candidates only talk about the state and country and terrorism and not about drinking water or land rights. Last time they created a spark with the dargah and now they refuse to even acknowledge it.”

It’s not surprising that five days before Chikamagalur votes, in the second phase, the important hub for coffee and education is largely undecided about who to vote for.