SHIVAMOGGA: Former chief minister BS Yediyurappa, whose name the State Government had proposed to name the new Shivamogga airport, has said that naming the airport after national poet Kuppalli Venkatappa Puttappa, popularly known as Kuvempu, is appropriate and a resolution in this regard will be passed in the ongoing legislature session.
Yediyurappa told reporters here on Sunday that he will table the proposal in the session and once passed, the resolution will be sent to the Union Government. Yediyurappa said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the airport on February 27.
“Kuvempu was the greatest saint-poet of the country in the 20th century. Kuvempu was the first Kannada poet to receive the Jnanpith award. He received the title Rashtrakavi in 1964. A great patriot, he wrote our state anthem ‘Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate.’ Hence, we have decided that it is appropriate to name Shivamogga airport after Kuvempu,” Yediyurappa added.
“As Modi is visiting Shivamogga on February 27, we want him only to announce the decision to name the airport after Kuvempu. Modi is trying to spread the message of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the whole world is one single family). Kuvempu had been spreading the message of Vishvamanava (universal human) through his writings since the 1930s,” he said.
Kuvempu, who was born on December 29, 1904, at Hirekodige in Chikkamagaluru district, spent his childhood at Kuppalli in Thirthahalli taluk of Shivamogga district. He had completed primary education in Thirthahalli while high school and higher education in Mysuru. His poem ‘Negila Hidida Holadolu Haaduta’ has been adopted as Raitha Geethe (farmers’ anthem) in Karnataka. He died on November 11, 1994.