Students’ association in Dakshin Kannada protest event to laud Chakrathirtha

AIDSO Karnataka Secretary Ajay Kamath appealed VC to decline the invitation

Deshapremi Sanghatanegala Okkuta has decided to lay siege to the event that would felicitate Rohith Chakrathirtha on June 25. The former chairman of the textbook revision committee would be lauded at a ceremony at Bhuvanendra Hall in Canara High School in Dongarkeri.

“During the revision of textbooks, social reformers Narayana Guru, Kuvempu, Ambedkar and Kayyara Kinhanna Rai have been insulted. The Okkuta expressed displeasure with Mangalore University Vice-Chancellor Prof P S Yadapadithaya for agreeing to preside over the programme. The Okkuta and other organisations will take out a procession from City Centre mall to the venue of the programme,” Democratic Youth Federation of India state president Muneer Katipalla said on Friday.

All India Democratic Students’ Organisation Karnataka (AIDSO) said that the textbooks revised by Rohith Chakrathirtha have a distorted history of great personalities like Basavanna, Ambedkar, Kuvempu among others. Lessons on Savitribai Phule, Kanakadasa, Purandara Dasa, Sri Narayan Guru have been dropped.

AIDSO Karnataka Secretary Ajay Kamath appealed to VC to decline the invitation.

“At a time when there is opposition to his ideas and textbooks revised by him, the V-C of a prestigious university should not preside over the programme organised to felicitate him,” Katipalla said.

DK Youth Congress General Secretary Ismail B S said a vice-chancellor must not back any political party. “Being an educationist himself, we expect the V-C to remain absent during the programme. It is an insult to the district for organising a civic reception to Rohith Chakrathirta who had distorted history and insulted Nadageethe,” he stated and urged the organisers to cancel the programme.