MYSURU:The three-day Kannada Sahitya Sammelana began less on a literary and more on a political note, with the forum turning into a platform to hit out at the Union government for “establishing cultural dictatorship and undermining secular forces”.
The strongest pitch was for a separate Kannada flag and for a constitutional amendment to make Kannada as medium of instruction. A few writers even took the Sammelana as an opportunity to hit out at a minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet.
But the general refrain was against intolerance, with key speakers like Sammelana president Baragur Ramachandrappa, writer Chandrashekar Patil and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah expressing apprehension over the supari culture in the backdrop of the killings of journalist Gauri Lankesh and Dr MM Kalburgi. They stressed for unity among progressive thinkers as it was in early 1980s.
While Patil called for supporting a secular party that will uphold democracy, he said the country cannot be run on unilateral decisions. He criticised attack on intellectuals and freedom of expression as “anti national”. He said the people should vote for a national party with regional agenda. He added the Centre, over the decades, had made Hindi mandatory in central government institutions and wanted to impose it on non Hindi speaking states.
Referring to Narendra Modi’s Mann ki Baat, he said Modi should act as Prime Minister of the country and not of BJP and Gujarat alone. Ramachandrappa charged that a few wanted to establish cultural dictatorship in the country. Both writers targeted Primary Education Minister Tanveer Sait, who was missing from the function, saying “ he was busier than the CM”.The CM too rapped the Centre for increasing attacks in name of freedom of expression.