Looks like it’s open season on controversial books in Kannada. A meeting convened by Kannada Sahitya Parishat on Saturday to discuss Dr Banjagere Jayaprakash’s Aanu Deva Horaganavanu, witnessed ugly scenes as a section of the audience turned violent.
Soon after president Chandrashekhar Patil completed his address, former Karnataka Nataka Akademi chairman Dr K Marulasiddappa was invited to speak.
Meanwhile, Dayananda Swamiji of Vishwa Basavadharma Peetha, who was among the audience, intervened and expressed his anger over litterateurs supporting Dr Banjagere.
Writer R G Halli Nagaraj took serious exception to the swamiji’s intervention and asked him to “shut up” till it was his turn to speak. But the swamiji did not like the advice one bit and assaulted Nagaraj.
The surprised writers and Parishat office-bearers rushed in “to support” Mr Nagaraj and condemned the act. For a few minutes chaos prevailed.  Meanwhile, the swamiji demanded that he be given an opportunity to speak first. As Prof Patil obliged him, writers Baragur Ramachandrappa and B T Lalitha Naik opposed it and walked out of the meeting. Prof Patil then adjourned the meeting for 10 minutes.
Prof Ramachandrappa later told reporters that “forces which have no respect for the right to expression” were behind the unseemly developments.
The meeting resumed later and continued peacefully. Prof K Marulasiddappa said though he did not accept Dr Banjagere’s statements made in his book, “I find no reason to ban the book”.  Dayananda Swamiji said the way the birth of Basavanna had been portrayed in the book “is highly insulting”.