’Dropping chapters on Narayana Guru, Kayyara Kinhanna Rai insult to Tulu Nadu’: Mithun Rai

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, June 25, 2022: Former president of the District Youth Congress Mithun Rai and DCC president and MLC Harish Kumar said that dropping chapters related to Kayyara Kinhanna Rai and Narayana Guru was akin to an insult to Tulu Nadu. The dropped chapters should be included in the textbooks at the earliest, they said.

 

“If not included in the textbooks, we will intensify our protest. We will reach out to each and every household to create awareness on the distorted history by the textbook revision committee,” Rai told media persons in Mangaluru.

Kayyara Kinhanna Rai was part of Karnataka Ekikarana Chaluvali. However, his name has been dropped and Manjeshwara Govinda Pai’s name has been included. “We are not against Manjeshwara Govinda Pai. Kinhanna Rai had considered Govinda Pai as his guru. From 1956 till 2015, Kayyara Kinhanna Rai was part of the Karnataka unification movement that wanted all Kannada-speaking areas to be brought within a single state.”

He accused the BJP of playing on the emotions of people of Tulu Nadu. “The people of the region will not forget and will teach them a lesson,” he said.
“We would have accorded a “good felicitation” to the textbook revision committee former president Rohith Chakratirta, had he arrived Mangaluru to accept the civic reception organised by Chinthana Ganga," he said.

He dared the organisers to organise the felicitation programme. Chakratirta distorted history while revising the textbooks and dropped lessons on social reformers, including Narayana Guru, and a poem by Kayyana Kinhanna Rai. The government can drop the lessons from the textbooks but cannot remove Kayyara Kinhanna Rai and Narayana Guru from the hearts of the people of Tulu Nadu,” he declared.

Harish Kumar accused the government of continuing confusion pertaining to the textbook without taking it to a logical end. The government has not come out with clarity on the issue. The textbooks have already been printed based on the revision textbook committee’s directions. However, the textbooks have not reached the schools. Even PU students have not received textbooks, he said.

Dropping lessons pertaining to Kayyara Kinhanna Rai and Narayana Guru has hurt people. When there was controversy over the textbook revision committee, a civic reception was arranged for Rohith Chakratirta, which the organisers postponed after much criticism.

“The BJP MLA and organisers tried to add ghee to the burning fire by organising a programme to felicitate Chakratirta,"he said. "Instead of postponing the programme, the organisers should have organised it and we would have shown our way of felicitation. The proposed civic reception programme was aimed at insulting the people of Tulu Nadu and threatening those who opposed the programme,” he alleged.

Courtesy: Deccan Herald