Only one dignitary turns up for Narayana Guru Jayanti

Just one dignitary turned up for the Bramhasri Narayana Guru jayanti (birth anniversary) which was organised by the district administration, Kannada and Culture department and District Bramhasri Narayana Guru Jayanti Celebration Committee here on Wednesday.

Among the dignitaries, even though District in-charge Minister H C Mahadevappa and MP Pratap Simha were present in the city, they did not attend the programme. The former was in fact scheduled to inaugurate the event.

The other guests listed on the official invitation were Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait, Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council Marithibbegowda, MLAs Vasu, M K Somasekhar and G T Devegowda, MLCs Sandesh Nagaraj and R Dharmasena, chairpersons of corporations and authorities D Dhruvakumar, B Siddaraju, H S Nanjappa, Mallige Veeresh, G V Seetharamu, and N Nandakumar, Mayor M J Ravikumar and Zilla Panchayat president Nayeema Sulthana.

The only dignitary who attended the event was Chairman of Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited H A Venkatesh. Even government officials of the departments concerned were absent.

President of the district Arya Ediga Sangha M K Pothraju said that the people’s representatives and officials have shown disrespect to a noble soul. “From next year, the district administration need not organise the jayanti. We will organise it as a private function,” he said.

Sangha vice-president Rajasekhar Kadamba said that even though the Sangha office-bearers had personally invited all the dignitaries listed in the invitation for the programme, they are now saying that they have not been invited.