Row breaks out over Cong-leader sponsored Christ statue in

A row broke out in Karnataka on Friday over senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar sponsoring construction of a 114-foot statue of Jesus Christ with the ruling BJP terming it as an appeasement policy and the state government seeking a report from authorities on the status of the land earmarked for the project.

According to state Revenue Minister R Ashoka, the land, said to have been purchased for constructing the statue, is not owned by Shivakumar and it is a government 'gomala' land (pasture land for community use).

The proposed 101-foot statue atop a 13-foot pedestal is coming up at Kapalibetta in Harobele village, a predominantly Christian locality in Kanakapura, the assembly constituency of Shivakumar, about 80 km from here.

The office of Shivakumar has said utilising his own funds he had purchased 10 acres of land at Kapalibetta from the government for the trust that is constructing the statue and claimed it would become the tallest monolithic statue of Jesus in the world.

On December 25, Shivakumar had laid the foundation at a prayer meet and handed over the title deed for the project.

Speaking on the ownership of the land Ashoka said ".... it is not Shivakumar's property, it is government gomala land, I don't know in what sense he (Shivakumar) has said he has purchased and given it... no one can donate it to any one. I have sought a report from the District Deputy Commissioner of Ramanagara."
It won't be a surprise if more slaves within the Congress compete with each other to do appeasement politics."