A vehicle jatha, as part of Dharwad Chalo, arrived in Tumakuru city on Monday on the eve of the death anniversary of rationalist M.M. Kalburgi.
The vehicle jatha headed by noted Kannada writer Chandrashekar Patil started from Bengaluru and will reach Dharwad where a large rally will be held on Tuesday in which 32 progressive organisations, writers, progressive thinkers from across the country will participate and demand to arrest the murderers of the three rationalists - Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, besides pressing for the anti-superstition bill in the state.
Mr. Patil told reporters that communal forces are suppressing the constitutional rights of the citizens in a democratic set up. There is a growing voice against intolerance in the country. However, communal forces are desperately trying suppress this voice by launching attacks on Dalits and those belonging to minority communities, he charged.
Leader of Communist Party of India (Marxist) G.N.Nagaraj said that there is no rational freedom in the nation and researchers do not have the freedom to do research. The union government is snatching the freedom of researchers who have to work without fear and cited the cases of suicide by Rohith Vemula, a research scholar of Hyderabad Central University, and arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar of Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Writer Vasundhara Bhupathi, former minister B.T. Lalitha Naik and others were present.
