The second day of 85th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana on Thursday saw the session on women’s issues morph into a platform for a critique of Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).
Resource persons R. Poornima, Shivaganga Rumma and B.T. Lalita Naik chose this topic. Talking about a wide spectrum of people taking part in anti-CAA protests, Dr. Poornima said, “It is amazing to see thousands of women actively participating in the agitations. The fact that Bengaluru alone has seen 82 agitations in just 30 days speaks volumes about the rise in people’s consciousness. The source of this unprecedented challenge is the aspiration for equality enshrined in their minds,” she added.
Shivaganga Rumma, Kannada professor, Central University of Karnataka, also raised the issue of the sedition case slammed on Shaheen School for staging an allegedly controversial play and the breach of peace case against Koppal-based journalist-poet Siraj Bisaralli for reciting an anti-CAA poem at an event. Former Minister and writer B.T. Lalita Naik, who presided over the session, too opposed CAA and NRC by stating that the measures were meant to divide the communities.
At another session, writer and activist R.K. Hudgi demanded the resignation of Kannada Sahitya Parishat president Manu Baligar for failing to prevent interference of the State government in the affairs of the autonomous institution, when Kannada and Culture Minister C.T. Ravi tried to change the president of the Chikkamagaluru Sahitya Sammelana in Sringeri. “Mr. Ravi stopped the funding for the sammelan, but Mr. Baligar did not object to this,” he pointed out.
AICC general secretary M. Mallikarjun Kharge came down on the Centre and right-wing politics and called upon people to ‘save the Constitution to save India’.