A letter by Nagesh Kalburgi, chairman of the Hubballi-Dharwad Urban Development Authority (HDUDA) and leader of the Somavamsha Sahasrarjun Kshatriya Samaj, to the community’s trust committee seeking a social boycott of families having any alliance with Muslim families, has been severely criticised.
Mr. Kalburgi’s letter, which has been shared widely on social media, has been written in the backdrop of a recent incident in which a girl of the SSK Samaj married a Muslim youth and their marriage was registered in Gadag.
After the girl’s family objected to their marriage, members of Hindutva groups and members of SSK Samaj had staged a demonstration outside the suburban police station in Hubballi alleging that it was a case of ‘love jihad’.
However, the girl, who was brought back to Hubballi by the police, categorically stated that she had married according to her wish and that she would not like to go back to her parents’ house. She had requested the community members and also the Hindutva outfits to allow her to live peacefully with her husband.
A day after these developments, Mr. Kalburgi’s letter has gone viral, to which several have taken exception.
In his letter to the SSK Kendra Pancha Committee Trust, which is the final authority of the community on religious issues, Mr. Kalburgi has sought social boycott of all those families in which the daughters have married Muslim men.
In the letter addressed to chief trustee Neelakanth Jadi, Mr. Kalburgi has referred to ‘love jihad’ and sought stringent steps to check the recurrence of such marriages.
Some of the stringent measures mooted by him are: social boycott of such families having marriage alliance with Muslim families; ban on entry of such families in SSK temples; not having an alliance with such families; not inviting them to family functions, and not participating in functions of such families.
Mr. Kalburgi confirmed that he wrote the letter to the chief trustee in the interest of the community and it was left to the trustees to take a final decision.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders have taken exception and president of Vidyanagar Block Congress unit Rajat Ullagaddimath has said that Mr. Kalburgi had issued a statement that would disturb communal harmony.
“What is even worse is that he has used his official capacity as HDUDA Chairman and written the letter using the official letterhead, which is not right,” he said.
