BENGALURU: There is a book lover in Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. In a decision that brought cheer to Kannada activists and organisations, Bommai insisted that he will not accept flowers, shawls or mementos at any official function and will, henceforth, receive only Kannada books.
At a police department function on Tuesday, the chief minister refused to accept a bouquet offered by Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar. “This is an unnecessary expenditure. There is no need to offer bouquets, garlands and shawls in the name of protocol. This tradition should stop immediately,” he told the audience.
The official order was issued immediately after.In fact, he is following in the footsteps of his father SR Bommai, who too had refused to accept garlands and had requested only for books after assuming charge as chief minister. The senior Bommai, in turn, was a follower of the trend set by his predecessor Ramakrishna Hegde in 1983. In 2011, then chief minister Sadananda Gowda too had advised his party workers and followers at Sulia in Dakshina Kannada district not to waste money on garlands and bouquets and to present him with books instead.
Bommai has also probably taken a cue from Sunil Kumar, his cabinet colleague and Kannada and Culture Minister. Sunil, during a visit to his home constituency of Karkala in Udupi district after assuming charge as minister, had advised his followers to give him only Kannada books. He collected 2,500 books at Karkala and some more at Vidhana Soudha after he took charge as Kannada and Culture Minister along with Energy portfolio, sources at his office said.
His decision had received a tremendous response. “It becomes a practice once we change the mindset. If more people buy and donate Kannada books, the language will flourish,” he told TNIE.He said that when he won the last Assembly election in 2018, he had requested his followers to give him notebooks instead of garlands. Thousands of notebooks were collected which he donated to government schoolchildren in his constituency.
Though the pro-Kannada initiative by Bommai and Sunil was widely appreciated, there was a section that expressed concern for the garland seller and flower farmer. Diwakar, president of KR Market Flower Vendors’ Association, said, “Books are a good option, but by purchasing a garland, one helps many people. With the lockdown and Covid restrictions, garland sellers and farmers are in a crisis. Buying and presenting garlands to political leaders helps them in a small way.”