Mangalore: Social, political outfits slam event to felicitate Rohith Chakrathirtha

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Political and social outfits of Mangalore condemned a programme slated to be organised by the Sevanjali Charitable Trust to felicitate former textbook revision committee head Rohith Chakrathirtha on June 25. The outfits also criticised the probable presence of Vice Chancellor of Mangalore University P S Yadapadithaya as the chief guest of the event.
Chakrathirtha has been under severe criticism from the Opposition parties, writers and authors for “distorting” and “saffronising” school textbooks as the textbook revision committee head. After widespread criticism, Chakrathirtha was also removed as the textbook revision committee chairman by the BJP government in Karnataka.
The event is titled ‘Chintana Ganga’ and it is slated to see the felicitation of Chakrathirtha who is also expected to talk about ‘Karnataka’s past and its forgotten history’. While Yadapadithaya has been invited as the chief guest, the chairman of the charitable trust is BJP’s Mangalore South constituency MLA Vedavyas Kamath and the chief functionary officer is Naresh Shenoy, who is also the convenor of the Namo Brigade.
Muneer Katipalla, state president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), said, “It is highly condemnable to felicitate such a controversial figure (Rohith Chakrathirtha) who has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. It is also disappointing to see the vice chancellor of Mangalore University participating as a chief guest in this event hosted by right-wing groups. Chakrathirtha has been accused of insulting the state anthem penned by Kuvempu and distorting facts related to Basavanna and B R Ambedkar. The programme should be cancelled and the vice chancellor must withdraw his participation from the event. Otherwise, citizen groups and social outfits will protest tomorrow (Saturday) against the event.”
Hanumantha Kamath, secretary of the charitable trust, said, “We are a democratic country and everybody has the right to oppose and protest. The event is related to Karnataka’s history and it is not related to textbooks. Moreover, nobody vehemently opposed Chakrathirtha in the Congress regime when he shared the controversial Facebook post. Why is it being brought up now? While protests are part of a democratic setup, it should also be noted that these protests don’t turn violent and impact our programme.”
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