Kudos to Kambar: BCC meeting adjourned

BELGAUM: The issue of congratulating Kannada writer Chandrashekhar Kambar for being selected for the Jnanpith award - the highest in the literary field - rocked the general body meeting of Belgaum City Corporation (BCC), forcing mayor Manda Balekundri to adjourn the meeting for an indefinite term, here on Thursday.Kannada corporator and former Deputy Mayor Jyoti Bhavikatti had proposed a Congratulatory Motion and urged the mayor to accord a civic reception to Kambar as he hails from Belgaum district. The proposal was strongly opposed by Marathi linguistic corporator Sambhaji Chavan, who said that the BCC cannot pass the congratulatory motion and felicitate Kambar, as Kambar wanted Kannada to be made compulsory from standard I to X. Chavan’s statement irked the pro-Kannada corporators, who rushed to the chair of the mayor and demanded that Chavan be suspended from the meeting.The matter took a linguistic turn after a few other pro Marathi and Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) members encouraged Chavan by stating they would stand behind him. However, later they said it was only the latter’s opinion and not theirs.The protesting Kannada members stuck to their demand to suspend Chavan from the meeting and told the mayor that they would not allow her to conduct the meeting until she suspended Chavan, for which she had to adjourn the meeting for ten minutes. She resumed it after about an hour.The appeal of Marathi and MES corporators to give up the agitation and allow the mayor to take a decision after discussing the matter went in vain, as Kannada corporators remained stubborn and said that they wanted Chavan be suspended first. The Kannada corporators continued their agitation, which forced the mayor to adjourn the meeting for an indefinite term.Surprisingly, two other Kannada corporators - Parushram Dhage and Gundu Mastamaradi - and group leader Sambhajirao Patil remained silent throughout. Dhage and Mastamaradi said they would not interfere in an issue concerning languages.Pro-Kannada corporators wanted Kambar to be given a civic reception as he is from the same district. They said they had not opposed the resolution passed to congratulate Marathi photojournalist Amrut Birje, who won a national award.