Parishat 'threatens' to boycott Sahitya Sammelana over KLCD Bill row

Office-bearers of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) are planning to boycott the 86th Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in Haveri to protest the decision to drop KSP state and district presidents from the committee to enforce provisions of the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development (KLCD) Bill.

The three-day Sammelana is scheduled between November 11 and 13. The Assembly and the Council passed the Bill during the recent session.

“There is widespread resentment and pressure is mounting by writers and office-bearers to boycott the Sammelana. Our protest is against the officers who took the decision to drop the KSP from the enforcement committee, not against the government,” KSP president Mahesh Joshi told DH.

The KSP has written to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, seeking an appointment to discuss the matter. A delegation comprising office-bearers, Sammelana organisers and writers will meet Bommai soon.

“The government should set right the injustice,” Joshi said in his letter.

The Karnataka Law Commission headed by Justice S R Bannurmath, in its KLCD report, submitted to the government mandated constitution of a state-level committee comprising the KSP state president at the state level and the district president at the district level to oversee implementation of its recommendations.

A few officer-bearers alleged that two bureaucrats of the department of Kannada and Culture were behind the controversy as they removed the relevant provisions from the Bill. The Parishat has organised a discussion on the Bill on its premises on October 10.