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K’taka: Panel set up to ease leasing of grazing land
Several religious institutions have also taken large tracts of grazing lands to protect cows that have made it difficult for the government to find adequate land for setting up Goshalas or cowsheds as promised by Bommai.
The Karnataka government has formed a sub-committee to survey and check guidelines for leasing out “Gomala” or grazing land in the state which appears to be an attempt to regularise encroachments.
The sub-committee that will be headed by Karnataka revenue minister R Ashok and has other cabinet ministers including JC Madhuswamy, Araga Jnanendra, Prabhu Chavan, BC Patil and Byrathi Basavaraj as members, according to a notification issued on Saturday.
“There are some contraindications in our rules which were not clear on whether those lands can be granted or not. There has to be consistency across the rules which are allowed and disallowed (to give it to organisations),” a senior Karnataka government official told Hindustan Times requesting not to be named.
The official was unable to provide details of total Gomala lands in the state.
Interestingly, the decision does not augur well with the bovine-influenced politics being propagated by chief minister Basavaraj Bommai who continues to prioritise cows as an extension of his attempt to “appease” the right wing, analysts said.
Several religious institutions have also taken large tracts of grazing lands to protect cows that have made it difficult for the government to find adequate land for setting up Goshalas or cowsheds as promised by Bommai.
Chambi Puranik, a Bengaluru-based political analyst, said Bommai continues to rely on gaining favour from his predecessor, BS Yediyurappa, as well as from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“He has an obligation to the RSS. He brought the anti-conversion bill to appease the Hindutva lobby,” Puranik said.
The chief minister adopted 11 cows from the Rashtrothana Gau Shala (cow shelter) on his birthday which his office called as the “way for cow protection”.
Despite not being originally from the BJP, Bommai has taken a hardline approach on several issues to pander to the right wing, including introducing contentious laws like anti-conversion which includes an attempt to regulate inter-faith marriages which the right wing calls “love jihad” as well as trying to justify increasing acts of moral policing and religious intolerance in the state.
There has also been an increase in religious intolerance in Karnataka like moral policing, hate crimes, attacks on minorities among other crimes.
There has also been an increase in religious intolerance in Karnataka like moral policing, hate crimes, attacks on minorities among other crimes.
“When sentiments are hurt, it is natural that there are actions and reactions. Even the youth should keep in mind these sentiments and act accordingly,” Bommai said on October 13 last year, almost justifying the rising number of vigilante-based crimes across the state, sparking off protests.
At least 34 well-known intellectuals from different parts of the state and country on the eve of Republic Day shot off a letter to the chief minister over the rising intolerance.
“Over the past few months, the state has witnessed the brutal killing of youths in several districts, rampant ‘hate speeches’, public threats and disruptions of worship by religious minorities, ‘honour killings’, ‘moral policing’, misogynistic statements by legislators, and incidents of hostile and violent encounters between various religious groups. These trends have been encouraged by the callous and un-constitutional statements made by Legislators and the inability of the state machinery to rein-in fringe anti-social groups,” according to the letter.
