Priyank Kharge (left) and Tejasvi Surya.
Credit: DH Photos
Hubballi/Bengaluru: A farmer’s suicide in Haveri got entangled in a story that twisted and turned hours after the police booked BJP MP Tejasvi Surya for “fake news” linking the death to the raging Waqf controversy.
On Thursday, Surya tweeted an article by a Kannada news portal that Rudrappa Chandrappa Balikai died by suicide because his land was labelled as Waqf property.
The Haveri police responded to Surya’s tweet that it was “false” news, adding that Rudrappa died in January 2022 due to indebtedness and crop loss. Surya deleted his tweet and thanked the police for clarifying.
The same night, IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge called out Surya for “spreading misinformation and fueling communal tension for electoral gain”. The minister said Surya would be booked. The police, apart from booking Surya, also named the news portal.
On Friday, however, Rudrappa’s family contradicted the police version on their son’s death. Rudrappa died out of worry that his land was going to be taken over as Waqf, they told news channels.
“...when I tweeted about the farmer’s suicide in Haveri due to Waqf land grab, (Priyank Kharge) got the Haveri police to register a false case, accusing me of spreading misinformation. He got the police to not only lie, but he even intimidated the media to hide the reality,” Surya said. “...the father of the deceased farmer himself has exposed how changes in Pahani by Waqf Board pushed his son to suicide,” he added.
If this was the turn, Priyank came up with the twist.
At a news conference, Priyank flashed a document containing the statement made by Rudrappa’s family to the police. “It states clearly that there was a loan borrowed from ICICI Bank for survey number 31/2A. This was their own land against which there was a loan. An adjoining land is the one that involves Waqf,” the minister said.
“This happened in 2022 when the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government. What were you (BJP) doing back then? This is a clear case of misinformation and fake news,” Priyank said. “It has become a habit for Tejasvi Surya to tweet and then delete. He’s a ‘delete raja’,” he said.
Priyank warned the BJP against disrupting peace using fake news. “We will take action. Don’t cry then in front of the media,” he said.