Firoz.T.Totanawala The Bangalore Metro Reporter TAKEN FOR GRANTED THE TOLERANT & PEACE LOVING KANNADIGAS BECOME EASY TARGETS

BY. FIROZ.T.TOTANAWALA 

THE BANGALORE METRO REPORTER 

TAKEN FOR GRANTED 

THE TOLERANT & PEACE LOVING KANNADIGAS BECOME EASY TARGETS 

 India cherishes itself of being a largest democracy with secular roots and boasts of its vast, rich and varied cultural heritage. Yet, arguably, India is still struggling to practice complete secularism. Our freedom fighters after the Independence thought it ideal to divide India into linguistic and regional boundaries called State for better and smooth administration, but, the same division now has become an agenda for vested interests. 

 Take for example our State of Karnataka. No doubt, that it is a pride for India, but of late it has been targeted by our own fellow Indians for their personal gains. It is widely known that the Kannadigas are basically peace loving and tolerant people and perhaps therefore they have been taken for granted more often. 

 The fact is that the Kannadigas have allowed outsiders that are the Non-Kannadigas to take them for granted. No amount of humiliations, insults etc can move the Kannadigas. Except the Kannada Rakshana Vedike, no other pro Kannada organisations have thought it fit to counter humiliations by the outsiders. It seems that Kannadigas who were once respected for their valour and tolerance, have forgotten the past. May be the Kannadigas have lost their nerve to protest any attack on the Kannada and the Kannadigas. 

 THE BIHARI PROTEST

 When Raj Thackerey, the boss of Maharastra Nav Nirmana Sena made comments on North Indians particularly the Biharis, the politicians of North India took strong exception. The North Indians in Mumbai observed protest which led to large scale violence and Maharastra literally burnt for three days. 

 Laloo Yadav, a Bihari demanded the arrest of Raj Thackerey and challenged him to prevent him from observing ‘chhath’ festival in Mumbai. Similarly Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar too demanded serious actions against Raj Thackerey. Finally acting under the pressure, the Maharashtra Government arrested Raj Thackerey. He was later within minutes released on bail by the court which passed a gag order against him from making provocative statements. 

 THE DIRTY INSULT

 Now let us compare this with Laloo’s behaviour in Karnataka during his visit to the state to attend the convention of Yadav community. Laloo was very angry with the Kannadigas for having disturbed the recruitment to D group posts in the Railways. If all went according to Laloo’s game plan, most of the D group posts in the state would have gone to Biharis who have descended on the state for recruitment. The Kannada Rakshana Vedike held fierce protests and the recruitment had to be abandoned. This irked Laloo so much that he called Kannadigas as dirty people. There were some strong protests by the Kannada organisations and Laloo cleverly denied that he had made such a remark. He twisted the fact by stating that what he had in mind was dirty issues and not dirty people. What more, he denied the state of its due in new projects and railway lines and Kannadigas and Kannadiga politicians remained quite. 

 MUSICAL HUMILIATION

 While Kannadigas were about to forget the Laloo episode, another shocking incident of humiliating Kannada surfaced. A senior official of a software company penned a derogatory song on the Kannadigas and forced the Kannadiga employees to sing it daily before him. The outsider employees used to take perverted satisfaction while singing this derogatory song! Naturally the news incensed the KRV activists who laid siege to the company and ransacked the office of the company. As usual, the police made their presence and the company who felt embarrassed with its official announced his dismissal. In fact, the police should have arrested this perverted official who had insulted the Kannadigas and filed a criminal case against him particularly so when the official concerned was a foreign citizen. If the same were to have happened either in Tamil Nadu or Kerala, the person would have been tried for treason! But this is Karnataka and the Kannadigas are notorious for their tolerance. So, the traitor was simply fired from his job in Bangalore and no wonder, if he got the posting in another place. 

 Laloo is an outsider to the state. The derogatory song on Kannadigas was penned by a foreigner. Except KRV, the giants of Kannada literature, Culture, Politics etc simply sat tight and some even went to the extent of taking exception to strong arm tactics of KRV activists. 

 MAJORITY POWER

 Everybody knows that the Marathis who started systematic migration from Maharastra are now a majority in Belgaum and surrounding areas. After becoming dominant, they started the demand for merging Belgaum, Nippani etc to the Maharastra. The Kannada speaking people were always at the mercy of this Marathi speaking dominant groups. The MES, that is, Maharastra Ekikarana Samithi, used to win all the assembly seats from this area and the Belgaum Corporation was also in control of MES. Only in the past few years, Kannadigas too started asserting their position. Literally, while the Marathis were consistently supported by the Maharastra politicians, the Kannadigas were completely ignored by the state’s politicians. 

 THE SECOND CAPITAL 

 It was only after HD Kumaraswamy becoming the Chief Minister that the Belgaum received its due importance. In order to show the Government’s solidarity with Kannadigas in Belgaum, Kumaraswamy held a special session of the Assembly in Belgaum and declared Belgaum as the second capital of Karnataka. This gesture by the Government made the Kannadigas to assert their position and things started changing since then. 

 KANNADIGA RISES 

 The following elections to the Belgaum Corporation saw prominent Maratha leaders licking the dust. For the first time, Kannada people got elected in large numbers but still fell short of the majority. Finally, sometime later, a Kannadiga got elected as the Major putting an end to the Marathi dominances. 

 DEMAND FOR MERGER

 This fact might have provoked the Marathi councilors in Nippani to assert their dominance and as a face saving formula, passed a resolution for the merger of Belgaum, Nippani etc with Maharastra. It is another matter that the politicians of Maharastra especially the Shiva Sena is providing all the logistic support to the Marathis in Belgaum and surrounding areas. 

 The resolution for merger with Maharastra by the Nippani Municipality had sent shockwaves across the state. As usual the politicians and leaders of Kannada kept a studied silence. And as usual, the KRV activists held strong protests and the Marathis too came on to streets against the KRV activists and prominent Kannada leaders in Nippani and Belgaum. The city became tense following the clashes between KRV and Marathi elements. However, the proposal was later rejected by the Government. Whatsoever, one thing that is easily ascertained with the incident is that everyone has a casual attitude to Kannadigas including Kannadigas. 

 It is interesting to know that the Maharastra politicians and local organizations who want North Indians to get out of Mumbai, have themselves colonised Belgaum and surrounding areas of Karnataka. And they support the Maratha elements in these areas to get Belgaum, Nippani etc merged with Maharastra. However, their double standards have gone unchallenged because the Kannadigas are peace loving and tolerant. They tolerate and even stomach humiliations. And that speaks volumes about the nature of Kannadigas.