Date:19/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/19/stories/2006101910730400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Process of selecting Rashtrakavi yet to start: Javare Gowda

K.N. Venkatasubba Rao

It is likely to be completed by the month-end, says panel chairman

BANGALORE: The process of selecting Rashtrakavi is yet to start, according to the former Vice-Chancellor of Mysore University and chairman of the selection committee D. Javare Gowda.

The nine-member committee at its first meeting requested 25 acclaimed literary critics to suggest the names of deserving poets who are alive for the honour. No names have been suggested until now. The committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss the criteria for the selection. The process is likely to be completed by the month-end, according to Prof. Gowda. He told The Hindu over telephone from Mysore that the committee was open to suggestions on the need to recognise writers who have written prose also for the honour.

On the poet and committee member K.S. Nisar Ahmed's suggestion that the rare honour should be bestowed posthumously on D.R. Bendre as he alone could match the stature of Rashtrakavi Kuvempu, Prof. Gowda said that it was a welcome but debatable suggestion.

The Government had directed that only poets who were alive were eligible for the honour. If the committee was to accommodate a renowned poet like Bendre, it should also consider another Jnanpith award winning writer Shivaram Karanth for the honour as his prose had poetic qualities, Prof. Gowda contended.

Prof. Nisar Ahmed said that in a letter to Prof. Gowda a fortnight before the committee's first meeting, he had suggested that Bendre's name should be considered for the honour. He had also sent copies of his letter to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and the authorities concerned in the Government, he added.

In his letter Prof. Nisar Ahmed had said, "Only a poet of Dr. Bendre's stature deserves the honour of Rashtrakavi which is held by Kuvempu now. If the committee compromises on this by selecting a living poet for the honour it should record my dissent."

Prof. Nisar Ahmed also expressed his apprehension about the need to select a Rashtrakavi at this juncture while the State was struggling to address serious problems on many fronts. Asked whether the committee had already selected a living poet for the honour, Prof. Gowda said that media reports to this effect had surprised him.