BENGALURU: A group of senior scientists, writers, academics, artistes, and lawyers have written a letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and all legislators of the state on the occasion of Republic Day, expressing concern about what they called Karnataka’s deteriorating governance and frequent violence against religious minorities.
A group of 34 people, which includes historian Ramachandra Guha, former secretary to Department of Science and Technology and Geophysicist Prof Vinod Gaur, lawyer and author Flavia Agnes, and social anthropologist Prof AR Vasavi, have written the letter, worrying that the state is losing its identity on the fiscal, administrative, and political fronts and was losing its federal strength.
They have stated that the state has witnessed “the brutal killing of youths, rampant ‘hate speeches’, public threats and disruptions of worship by religious minorities, ‘honour killings’, ‘moral policing’, misogynistic statements by legislators, and incidents of hostile and violent encounters between various religious groups” over the past few months, and blamed that these trends were encouraged by the statements made by legislators and the inability of the state machinery to rein-in fringe anti-social groups.
Noting that such trends go against Karnataka’s long history as a progressive state, the group said traditions of tolerance and shared well-being are being torn apart. “Recent legislations such as the ‘cow protection’ and ‘anti-conversion’ Acts are pogroms against the economic and cultural rights of religious minorities.
No longer are harmony, peace, and tolerance the hallmarks of the state,” they said, expressing concern that Karnataka’s reputation as a business destination is bound to be impacted negatively if the issues are not addressed.
“As elected representatives, it is the responsibility of the CM and all legislators to deliberate on all legislations, programmes, and policies in a democratic manner. Implementing received ideas and suggestions that seek to assert only narrow, sectarian agendas will only be antithetical to the interests of the state....,” the group urged.