Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President DK Shivakumar on Friday came out in support of noted Kannada scholar Hampa Nagarajaiah who was questioned by the police over a complaint on his “objectionable” comments against the Modi administration.
Nagarajaiah, known by his popular pen name Hampana, is the chairperson of the Kuvempu Pratishthana and a former Kannada Sahitya Parishat president. He is widely considered as an authority on Jainism. His wife Kamala Hampana is also a distinguished writer.
On January 17, while inaugurating the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in Mandya, Nagarajaiah reportedly criticized the Centre by likening it to the mythological character Duryodhana. A BJP worker filed a complaint with the Mandya police who summoned the writer and recorded his statement.
“All that Nagarajaiah said was that the (BJP) government came like Dharmaraya, but is now behaving like Duryodhana,” Shivakumar said. “For just this, he was taken to the police station based on a complaint by some urchin. What is this? What are the Kannada Sahitya Parishat and pro-Kannada groups doing?”
According to Shivakumar, Nagarajaiah lent his voice to the agitating farmers. “He doesn’t belong to any political party. He raised his voice against whatever is going on in Delhi and the situation across the country,” he said, calling it “a big insult” to Karnataka’s literary field.
Condemning the incident, Shivakumar said Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa should apologize to “all the poets and Kannadigas”. He also said that the Congress was firmly behind Nagarajaiah. “You can’t curb freedom of speech,” he said, adding that he would meet Nagarajaiah.
(Published 22 January 2021, 15:13 IST)
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