Vedike chief vows to block Urdu festival to be held at Vidhana Soudha

Bengaluru: Karnataka Rakshana Vedike President Narayana Gowda has sharply attacked the state government’s choice to mark an Urdu festival on the steps of Vidhana Soudha, saying the administration itself looks as though it has set out to damage social well-being. He declared that the programme will not be permitted under any circumstances. BJP figures have also objected, while a few ministers have stood by the decision.

Opposition from the Vedike to holding the festival on the grand steps of the legislature building has been intense. On his X account, Narayana Gowda called the move unwise, immature and arrogant, the stance of people who believe that whatever they attempt will simply pass.

He asked whether the government had forgotten the communal riot that followed the Urdu bulletin, and whether the present course was anything other than dropping a stone on one’s own foot. BJP voices have raised parallel objections. Council opposition leader Chalavadi Narayanaswamy said Urdu, once confined to schools, has now reached the steps of Vidhana Soudha, and asked why a custom that never existed is being introduced. He called it appeasement politics and said Karnataka’s honour is being spent for a vote bank. State BJP president Vijayendra charged that Congress has advanced the decision in order to placate minorities, and that a divide-and-rule line is being followed by staging an Urdu festival in a place where Kannada ought to hold sway.

Ministers have answered the criticism. Minister Rizwan Arshad, said genuine fighters for Kannada will not oppose the festival on the grand steps. His mother tongue is Urdu, he said, yet the language of his heart is Kannada, and he asked whether he himself is not a Kannadiga. Status was extended to Tulu without protest, he noted. Kannadigas are large-hearted, he said, and the people trying to split society are the ones driving the present row.

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