'Gives me headache': Karnataka BJP MLA KS Eshwarappa stirs controversy over Azaan on loudspeakers

Recently, Muslim organisations in Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka submitted a memorandum to the District Commissioner and BJP national General Secretary CT Ravi to allow them to use loudspeakers for Azaan early in the morning during the Ramzan period.

Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA KS Eshwarappa on Sunday (March 12) courted controversy after he questioned if Allah will listen to prayers only if loudspeakers are used during Azaan.

Addressing a rally organised as part of the BJP's 'Vijay Sankalp Yatra' in poll-bound Karnataka, the BJP MLA, who has also served as the Deputy Chief Minister, called the Azaan "a headache"

"Wherever I go, this (Azaan) gives me a headache," Eshwarappa said after a prayer call was made from a mosque nearby. 

"In temples, girls and women offer prayers and bhajans. We are religious, but we don't use loudspeakers. If you have to call for prayers using loudspeakers, it means Allah is deaf," the BJP leader said. "If at all there is any country which saves religion it is only India," he added.

Recently, Muslim organisations in Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka submitted a memorandum to the District Commissioner and BJP national General Secretary CT Ravi to allow them to use loudspeakers for Azaan early in the morning during the Ramzan period.

The Muslim organisations demanded that they should be allowed to use loudspeakers between 5 am and 5.30 am in the backdrop of the beginning of the Ramzan festival from March 22. 

Last year, following agitation, the use of loudspeakers for Azaan early in the morning was prohibited in the state.