New Delhi: Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA KS Eshwarappa on Sunday (March 12, 2023) stirred a controversy after he questioned if Allah will listen to prayers only if loudspeakers are used during Azaan. Speaking at a rally organised as part of the BJP’s ‘Vijay Sankalp Yatra’ in poll-bound Karnataka, Eshwarappa, 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 added.

“If at all there is any country which saves religion it is only India,” he said.

Earlier last week, Muslim organisations in Karnataka’s Chikkamagaluru 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. 

The use of loudspeakers for Azaan early in the morning is prohibited in the state following agitations last year.