MANGALURU: When curtains came down on the three-day much hyped ‘Tuluvere Parba’, one thing that stuck with the think tank of the Tuluva language and culture was that three leaders chose not to honour the invitation to attend the Parba.
These three leaders were former chief ministers M Veerappa Moily and D V Sadananda Gowda — Tuluvas themselves - and incumbent Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who sympathises with the Tuluva people.
This has shocked the Tuluva leaders for they had a string of complaints and demands to place before them. The three main demands were - shelving the Netravathi river diversion project, Niddodi super thermal power project and inclusion of Tulu language into the eighth schedule of the Constitution.
Both Moily and Sadananda Gowda are the products of coastal Karnataka and had shaped their respective political careers in Dakshina Kannada district but have now migrated to other constituencies from where they have won and have risen to new heights.
“Their absence was very significant and very serious. The Vishwa Tuluvere Parba (World Tuluva Festival) was one platform created by the Tuluvas for airing their concerns about Tuluva culture, our river, environment and farm lands. If we could not raise our demands I doubt there will be another such occasion in the near future. The other way was launching a struggle,” senior Tuluva leader Vishwanath Rai told Express. Tuluva leaders had nursed a notion that Siddaramaiah would have rushed to the protection of Tuluva people the same way he did with AHINDA.
“Most Tulu speaking people belong to the backward communities and schedule castes and tribes. They were hoping that Siddaramaiah would take up their cause particularly saving the livelihood of Tuluva people in case the government approved the diversion of Netravathi river and set up Niddodi power project,” convenor of the Sahyadri Samrakshana Samithi Dinesh Holla said
“In both cases thousands of farmers could have lost their livelihood. Most of them do not consider issues such as formation of Tulu Nadu and inclusion of Tulu into the Eighth schedule of the constitution, for them their livelihood was more important rightly so. The leaders have illustrated their insensitivity towards the issues faced by Tuluva people by their absence,” Holla added.
However Tulu activists recall the “inclusiveness” of the Tulu world conference held at Ujire in 2009. The activists said that event did give representation to all Tulu speaking people including backward communities, Schedule Castes and Tribes which constitute 60 per cent of the Tulu speaking people.
Former union minister B Janardhana Poojary also bitterly criticised the “lack of inclusiveness” in the Vishwa Tuluvere Parba. “The organisers have excluded a major chunk of Tulu speaking people. They have confined the nature of Vishwa Tuluvere Parba to just landowners and white collared Tuluvas,” he said.