Rashtrakavi Kuvempu’s statue installed at Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) unit was unveiled by Kuvempu’s son-in-law, former vice-chancellor, K Chidanandagowda and daughter Tarini as part of the poet’s birth anniversary in Hassan on Thursday.
Writer Ko Channabasappa said Kuvempu had always opposed installation of statues and had believed that a writer has no great honour than knowing that his works received good response and being analysed by readers and the learned. This was also expressed in one of his poems written in the year 1940, he added.
Statue culture
Channabasappa said knowingly or unknowingly we have been forced into the statue culture. He also advised the youth to follow Kuvempu’s ideologies and try to become
‘Vishwamanava’.
Chidanandagowda said if Kuvempu had known that a statue is being erected spending around Rs 8 lakh, he would not have accepted it and would have advised to print the message of Vishwamanava and distribute it.
This was also his wish during his last days and had even expressed the same to some people, he added.
Real tribute
KSP president Nallur Prasad, who presided over the programme, said “we want both the statue and his ideologies”. Commenting on rendering of Naadageethe, he lamented that the song is being rendered in different style in various parts of the state. Only when it is rendered in an uniform style, it would be a real tribute to the poet, he said.
MLA H S Prakash released a souvenir. KSP district unit president Udayaravi, MLC Patel Shivaram and others were present on the occasion.