Separate state advocates unveil flag innorthK’taka
STATEHOOD Protesters refuse to back down despite Kumaraswamy’s request BENGALURU:
Activists demanding a separate northern Karnataka state unveiled a flag on Tuesday at a protest in Belagavi, despite the chief minister HD Kumaraswamy holding a meeting with some protesters in the state capital. The protesters have also refused to back down from their call for a bandh in the 13 northern districts on August 2.
The call for a separate northern state comes in the backdrop of allegations of the region was ignored in the Budget presented by Kumaraswamy on July 5. The call also found support from some MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party, including former member of Parliament B Sriramulu.
Crucially, the flag was unveiled even as former chief minister and BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa met the seers and protesters in an attempt to convince them to back off from their demand.
Addressing the press before meeting the protestors in Belagavi, Yeddyurappa said: “The chief minister should have come here and met the seers and activists and assured them that developmental works would be undertaken and apologised if they were hurt by any of his statements”.
“Instead, the chief minister has set fire,” Yeddyurappa said. “The people will not forgive you, I am warning you… I feel this movement should stop and I am meeting the protestors for this reason,” he added.
In Bengaluru, where the chief minister met members of the Separate State Agitation Committee, he assured them that his motto was the development of the northern region. “Please consider me as one of your own,” he said.
At the meeting, Somashekhara Kotambari, president of the committee, listed out a series injustices meted out to the region. Citing the report of the Nanjundaiah commission, which looked at the regional imbalances in the state and submitted a report in 2002, Kotambari said nothing had changed in all these years because recommendations of the commission were never implemented.
Among the many problems listed was the difficulty of commuting to Bengaluru, which is located in the south eastern part of the state. A separate assembly building constructed in Belagavi, where the winter session is held every year, only comes to life for the duration of the session.
“It is difficult for us to travel 800 km to come to Bengaluru, which we are forced to because all the governmental offices are headquartered here,” Kotambari said. Additionally, he said, healthcare and education infrastructure was worse than that available in the southern part of the state.
In a bid to pacify the protestors, Kumaraswamy said a deputy Lokayukta would be announced whose office would be located in the Suvarna Soudha, the assembly building in Belagavi. Apart from this, he assured them that other departments, too, would be shifted soon.
“Besides, in all the conversations taking place around the issue at present, nobody has mentioned the farm loan waiver I have announced, the quantum of which has now increased to Rs 49,000 crore,” Kumaraswamy said. “It is the Bharatiya Janata Party that is stoking this movement for its benefit.”
Speaking after the meeting, Kotambari said the bandh call would not be revoked. “We will hold discussions with the all the organisations and come to a decision on this,” he said.
However, the decision to invite only one organisation and not others angered activists in Belagavi. “We have no idea who Kotambari is, and we are disappointed that the chief minister decided to hold a discussion only with his organisation,” said Bheemappa Gadad, president of the Northern Karnataka Agitation Committee.
There was considerable unease even in northern Karnataka about the demand for a separate state. Seers of many influential mutts decided to skip the protest, fearing that their influence would be used for a cause they had no sympathy for. “We have only backed a movement demanding justice for the northern region from the state government. Many of us decided to not take part in the protests because we do not support the idea of a separate state,” said Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swamy, an influential Lingayat seer from Kudala Sangama in Bagalkot district.
State Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao blamed the BJP for stoking the issue. “If there are problems they should be placed before the government rather than do such things,” he said, adding that the movement did not enjoy popular support.