Absence of Madhwaraj, Congress Leaders for State-sponsored Tipu Jayanti criticised
Udupi: The Udupi district Muslim Okkuta expressed dissatisfaction over the absence of the people’s representatives including district minister in-charge Pramod Madhwaraj for the state-sponsored Tipu Jayanti celebrations.
The district-level Tipu Jayanti programme was organised at the Lions Bhavan Brahmagiri here at 10.00 am. The district minister in-charge Pramod Madhwaraj was supposed to inaugurate the Tipu Jayanthi. The BJP people representatives Dinakar Babau (president ZP), Shobha Karandlaje (MP Udupi-Chikkamagaluru), B S Yeddyurappa (MP Shivamogga), Halady Srinivas Shetty (MLA Kundapur), Kota Srinivas Poojary (MLC), Nalini Pradeep Rao (President TP) boycotted the programme.
The names of congress leaders like district minister in-charge Pramod Madhwaraj, Oscar Fernandes (MP Rajya Sabha), Vinay Kumar Sorake (MLA Kaup), Gopal Poojary (MLA Byndoor), Pratap Chandra Shetty (MLC), Meenakshi Madhava Bannaje (President CMC) and Narasimmamoorthy (President UUDA) were mentioned in the invitation. Expect Meenakshi Madhava Bannaje (President CMC) all other congress leaders were absent for the programme.
Deputy Commissioner T Venkatesh inaugurated the programme, Meenakshi Madhava Bannaje (President CMC) presided over the programme. K T Balakrishna superintendent of Police, Maheshchandra Tahsildar Udupi, DM Ravikumar deputy director Kannada and culture department were the others present for the programme.
Hussain Kodibengre secretary of district Muslim Okkuta expressed his dissatisfaction for the failure of the district minister in charge Pramod Madhwaraj and other congress leaders to attend to their own state-sponsored Tipu Jayanti celebrations. The administration need not fool people by celebrating Tippu Jayanthi just to follow government orders. The district in-charge minister together with people representatives from congress have to answer said Husain Kodibengre, Secretary of Muslim Union. The poor response of participation from political leaders indicates that it as attempt to divide Muslims, he added
We Christians are really wondering as to where our so called community leaders, religious and political are doing when the Government decides to celebrate the Jayanti of a person who has killed Christians in thousands and tortured so many of them during his rule. Surely, we havent forgotten that! Why be so opportunistic when it comes to registering peaceful protests against the government? Is it because the Congress is in power or that the BJP is protesting so that we are not seen joining hands with them? Why cant we call a spade a spade for what it is? Do we need our Hindu brethren to remind us about Tipu’s misdeeds; cant we even tell the government in no uncertain terms or even protest that Tipu’s Jayanti celebrations are totally unacceptable to the Christian community; it is like creating new wounds when the old wounds have healed. We havent seen any leaders from the Christian community protest against the Government; rather we have an MLC from Mangaluru, Ivan D’Souza making his presence felt in support of the celebration. What a pity and what a shame! We have allowed the government to play with our feelings without even telling them that we dont like whats being done. No wonder, we get taken for granted and used as mere votebanks. We just cant stand up and say ‘Thats not right!’ I’m sure that if the BJP was in power and did something which Christians didnt like, we would have had people protesting in droves, unmindful of the inconvenience caused. Everything now is just based on strategic calculations and is market driven, alas the death of Conscience! At least, some poiltical leaders felt that it was not proper to attend!