Idgah Maidan
A
disputed Idgah
Maidan
at Kittur
Chennamma
Circle near the old bus stand in the heart of Hubli
city, and a ten-year-old case against Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharati
for attempting to hoist the national flag at the Maidan
have shot Hubli
into national limelight.
The Idgah Maidan belonging to the Hubli-Dharwad Mahanagara Palike measures 1.12 acres. Decades ago, the Maidan was just a bus stand. After the bus stand was shifted, the area was used by fruit and vegetable vendors, besides serving as a public parking lot. Moreover, twice a year (during Ramzan and Bakrid), the Anjuman here was allowed to use the Maidan for mass prayer (Namaz). In 1970, when the Anjuman sought to build a commercial complex on the Maidan, a dispute erupted.
The Idgah Maidan belonging to the Hubli-Dharwad Mahanagara Palike measures 1.12 acres. Decades ago, the Maidan was just a bus stand. After the bus stand was shifted, the area was used by fruit and vegetable vendors, besides serving as a public parking lot. Moreover, twice a year (during Ramzan and Bakrid), the Anjuman here was allowed to use the Maidan for mass prayer (Namaz). In 1970, when the Anjuman sought to build a commercial complex on the Maidan, a dispute erupted.
Hindu
organisations
argued that the “Anjuman
has been merely afforded an opportunity to hold prayers in the Maidan
and not to build any structure as it was a public property.” More than 100
people filed a public interest litigation. The munsiff
court ruled that the Idgah
Maidan
was a public property. The Karnataka High Court upheld the lower court’s order.
The dispute was dragged to the Supreme Court, where it lies to date.
.
In
order to scuttle the Anjuman’s
building plans and establish that the Maidan
was, indeed, public property, a counter strategy was evolved to hoist the
national flag. This gave birth to the Idgah
dispute, it is said. Amidst this controversy, BJP leader Dr
Murali
Manohar Joshi took out a “Ekatmatha
Yatra”
and hoisted the national flag in Srinagar’s Lal
Chowk
on January 26, 1992. He gave a call to
the people to hoist the flag at all public places across the country.
Again,
on August 15, 1994, Uma Bharati
and the local leadership tried to hoist the flag, leading to the former’s
arrest. Five people were killed in the subsequent police firing. Charges of
disrupting peace, obstructing police from discharging their duty and attempt to
murder were registered against Uma Bharati.
Thus, this incident has generated both public interest as well as indignation.
Source:
Deccan Herald dated 24-08-2004
Courtesy:
S. Sankaran, Editor.
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