Siddaramaiah doing disservice to Kannada poet Kuvempu: Shah

TIL Desk/National/Shivamogga (Karnataka)/ Lauding leading Kannada poet Kuvempu for unifying people through poems, BJP President Amit Shah on Monday castigated Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for doing “disservice” to the great writer by dividing people for petty political gains.

“The kind of politics Siddaramaiah is playing is a disservice to Kuvempu’s dream of building a great Karnataka. He is pitting one community against another, which is reprehensible and he will pay for this,” asserted Shah at a party rally in the Malnad region.

Popularly known by his pen name Kuvempu, Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa (1904-94) was also a novelist, playwright, critic and thinker. He lived many years at Kuppali near Thirthahalli in this district. “I visited Kuvempu’s birth and resting place at Kuppali to pay my respects. He spoke of unifying people in the country in his poems,” said Shah.

Recalling that Kuvempu praised the southern state as a garden where all communities live in harmony, he said the Chief Minister, however, caused disharmony by dividing people on caste and community basis. “If only Siddaramaiah had read Kuvempu’s poems and rich literature, he would not have been indulging in the politics of dividing people for political gains,” said Shah.