Mangalore, Jun 12: A protest was organized on Wednesday June 11 in front of the office of Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner in the city under the aegis of Vishwa Hindu Parishat, Bajrang Dal, and some other like-minded organizations, to express anger at some remarks purportedly made by renowned researcher, M M Kalburgi, which the organizations have terms as blasphemous.
Stating that Kalburgi hurt the sentiments of crores of Hindus through his callous remarks, they said he should be externed from Karnataka as he does not deserve to live in the state. They also demanded his immediate arrest.
Controversy erupted after M M Kalburgi, addressing a seminar on Anti-superstition Bill held at Bangalore recently, said ‘there was nothing wrong in urinating on idols’, while referring to litterateur U R Ananthamurthy who said he had once urinated on a stone idol.
Vishwa Hindu Parishat Dakshina Kannada district unit president, Manohar Tulazaram, in his address, noted that the Indian constitution does not permit usage of freedom of expression to hurt sentiments of others or to pass derogatory remarks about religions. Thereafter, the protesters, who also gave vent to their anger against littérateur, U R Ananthamurthy, whose book Kalburgi had referred while trying to defend himself, handed over a petition to the state governor through the deputy commissioner.
Jagadish Shenava, Jitendra Kottary, Sharan Pumpwell, Dinesh Pai Kateel, Gopal Kuttar, and others were present.
At a press conference, Dakshina Kannada district unit of Sri Ram Sene challenged Kalburgi to repeat his derogatory remarks during his visit to coastal Karnataka, where people have strong faith in the worship of spirits.
In a release, Hindu Yuva Sene Udupi district president, Vasudeva Bhat Pereampally, said that criminal cases would be filed against both Kalburgi and Ananthamurthy related to the above remarks. He felt that Kalburgi’s utterancesw have hurt the sentiments of a well-meaning community which has faith in idol worship.
In a protest held at Puttur on Wednesday, Vishwa Hindu Parishat leader, Arunkumar Puttila, felt that those who get satisfaction out of insulting Hinduism and misleading the society should be permanently lodged in jail. Bajrang Dal district convener, Muralikrishna Hasantadka, Vishwa Hindu Parishat district president, Deekayya Pervody, and several others were present.