3rd World Kannada conference at Davangere in Dec, says CM

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday announced that the third World Kannada Conference in Davangere will be held in the first or second week of December.

Speaking to reporters after chairing a meeting of writers, thinkers and academicians here, Siddaramaiah said the meet will be a low-key affair in the wake of drought. He said the government had no plans to go for early polls and December would be convenient to hold the conference. The chief minister said the government would implement the cultural policy within a week. 

Participating in the deliberations, Kannada Development Authority chairman S G Siddaramaiah said writers should help the government take up drought-relief works.

While poet H S Venkatesh Murthy suggested that the government organise a cultural festival and an exhibition during the conference, writer and researcher M Chidananda Murthy said the government should also invite Kannadigas in Nepal and Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia to the conference.

Writer Chandrashekar Patil questioned the urgency of holding the conference, when the state was staring at its fourth consecutive drought. “The second conference was held after a gap of almost 26 years in 2011 after the first conference in 1985. Can we not wait for some more time?”

Why invite Bollywood stars?

The meeting saw a section of participants objecting to inviting Bollywood actors like Aishwarya Rai or Deepika Padukone to the meet since “they made no effort to learn Kannada despite being born in Karnataka.”