High Court clears decks for unveiling of statue

Pro-Kannada activists intensify agitation, hold protest march

Castigating pro-Kannada outfits opposing the unveiling of statue of Tamil saint-poet Thiruvalluvar here on August 9, Karnataka High Court today dismissed their petition seeking a direction to the government not to go ahead with it, paving way for the event stalled for 18 years.

Holding that all legal conditions had been met for unveiling of the statue, the court warned the outfits against organising any agitation and said the state had a free hand to deal with it if any attempt was made to do so.

“Adding fuel to the fire is easy, suppressing a fire is difficult. Creating confusion and giving room for agitation is easy, but controlling agitation is difficult”, the Chief Justice P D Dinakaran observed.

“Let us not divide the nation on caste, language...We are all one,” he said in his observations adding, “when the country is emerging as a major power, let us bury all this”. Justice Dinakaran and Justice V G Sabhahit, who constituted a Division Bench, in their order, passed strictures against the petitioners “for wasting its time” by moving the PIL on an issue on which the state has taken a decision and accorded all approvals.

Issuing a stern warning to the petitioners against holding any agitation opposing the unveiling, the Bench said “if the petitioner or their followers or any other third party makes an attempt to hold agitation, the state has free hand to deal with the matter”.

Meanwhile, hundreds of activists of some pro-Kannada outfits today took out a protest march against the unveiling of the statue of Thiruvalluvar here on August 9.

Around 1,500 activists of ‘Kannada Sene’, ‘Kannada Rakshana Vedike’, ‘Chaluvali Vatal Paksha’ and ‘Dalit Sangharsha Samiti’, under the banner of Akhila Karnataka Gadi Rakshana Samiti (Karnataka Border Protection Committee) participated in the march shouting anti-government slogans, police said. The agitators also boycotted the second round of talks convened by chief minister B S Yeddyurappa today to persuade them to give up their opposition to unveiling the statue.