Date:30/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/30/stories/2006123009670400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Controversies contributed to sammelan's success: Champa

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Government has no right to "interfere" in the activities of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP), which is autonomous, just because it funds the body, its president Chandrashekar Patil has said.

The State Government gave a grant of Rs. 1 crore to the parishat for holding the recent all-India Kannada sammelan in Shimoga.

The sammelan was unfortunately a witness to unprecedented "political interference for petty reasons," he said.

The relationship between the Government and autonomous literary bodies such as the KSP should be discussed in depth in the interests of democracy, said Champa, as Mr. Patil is popularly called. He told presspersons here on Friday that any autonomous body had the right to its own decisions and attempts to stifle its rights would not augur well for its growth.

Champa said that the controversies that arose at the sammelan had actually contributed to its success. The controversies over not inviting the Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, U.R. Ananthamurthy and others to the sammelan in a befitting manner, and the KSP's decision to invite some "radical thinkers" in fact gave some momentum to the sammelan, Champa claimed.

Mr. Patil said that no national political party could effectively address regional culture and language-related issues.

Regional political parties in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh had shown how they could effectively mobilise "Janashakti" and employ language and culture as political tools for protecting their interests.

Contrary to the general view that the book-reading culture was on the wane, publishers and others made a record sales worth Rs. 5 crore at the sammelan, he said.