HampaNa inaugurates Mysuru Dasara, with prayers on war, democratic ideals, to goddess Chamundeshwari

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Mysuru district in-charge minister H C Mahadevappa, Tourism Minister H K Patil, Minister for Kannada and culture Shivaraj Tangadagi and others joined him and offered floral benediction to the Goddess Sri Chamundeshwari.

Mysuru: Scholar and writer Hampa Nagarajaiah (HampaNa) offered six prayers, including to stop wars, wish Centre to resolve the unemployment problem and to stop the toppling of elected governments. He also described the recently concluded ‘Human Chain’ programme on International Democracy Day as a ‘creative Bhagya’ of the Karnataka government.

He was delivering the inaugural speech of the 414th annual Mysuru Dasara celebration, atop the Chamundi Hill, on Thursday (October 3). Earlier in the day, the dignitaries, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM D K Shivakumar and District in-charge Minister H C Mahdevappa, offered obeisance at Sri Chamundeshwari Devi temple and offered puja to the Nandi Dwaja.

Stop wars

HampaNa, 89, said, Sri Chamundeshwari Devi should inspire world leaders to stop the Israel-Palestian and Russia-Ukarine wars, to stop the loss of precious human lives.

He said, unemployment is the biggest national problem and the youth in Bharat are disappointed. “I pray to the Devi, on behalf of the youth, to inspire the Centre, to formulate a policy to resolve unemployment,” HampaNa said.

Scholar and writer Hampa Nagarajaiah speaks during the inauguration of the 414th annual Mysuru Dasara celebration, atop the Chamundi Hill, on Thursday morning.

Dubious politics

“The Goddess should stop the ill-will of politicians, to topple elected governments, by dubious means. Toppling is easy. But, frequent elections will only overburden the already burdened citizens. No party can be in government permanently. For those in the opposition, five years are enough to win the hearts of the people and thus come to power,” he said. This indirectly referred to the poaching of MLAs and also alleged misuse of investigating and enforcing agencies to target those running the state government.

“The youth, who read offensive statements and counter-statements by politicians, in the media, are misled. Politicians should channel their energies to implement programmes and projects for the development of the nation, rather than abuse each other,” he said.

Women empowerment

He prayed to the Goddess, to inspire the parents to stop female foeticide for women empowerment. “Women Reservation Bill is being hindered, for a couple of decades. In some places, girls are threatened not to go to schools,” he pointed out.

Describing Siddaramaiah as ‘Bahu Bhagyagala Bramha’ (creator of several benefits), Nagarajaiah said, the world-record creating ‘human chain’, from Chamarajanagar to Bidar, across Karnataka, was much required, as bridges between the people are being demolished, to create craters, under the prevailing situation. He was referring to the disconnect among the people, due to divisive politics.

Festive ideals

HampaNa stressed the need to continue traditions like Dasara, for the benefit of younger generations, to conserve our culture.

“After Independence, Dasara has been converted into a people’s celebration, from that of the kings. This is a festival of all communities, cutting across faith, caste and creed. Dasara also spreads values and ideals. During our childhood, my mother used to guide us, not to separate the two ‘bachanige’ dolls, while arranging them for Navaratri. This ideal of couples being inseparable was thus imbibed among us,” he recalled.

HampaNa dedicated the opportunity, to inaugurate Dasara, to his late wife Kamala Hampana, who was also a scholar and writer.

“She was a friend for a total of 71 years, including as classmate for six years and wife for 63 years,” he mentioned.

Ministers Shivaraj Thangadgi, K H Muniyappa, H K Patil, K Venkatesh, MLAs G T Devegowda, Tanveer Sait, Ramesh Bandisiddegowda, T S Srivathsa, Anil Chikkamadhu, G D Harish Gowda, A R Krishnamurthy, K Harish Gowda and daughter of HampaNa H N Arathi were present.

On the occassion, CM Siddaramaiah said, "Only when there is good rains, there can be good crops and prosperity. Due to drought situation, we celebrated a simple, but meaningful Dasara last year. This year, with copious rains, all reservoirs are filled, and 99 per cent of the sowing is done by farmers. People are happy. We are celebrating the festival grandly. We want this Dasara to be people's Dasara, with participation of more people". 

Siddaramaiah, who called Hampana 'a rare writer', said, "He has not just contributed to Kannada literature, but to Jain literature. The bonding of Hampana and his wife the late Kamala Hampana, also a writer, is model to others. His Dasara inaugural speech, that states that attempts to topple an elected government is anti democratic, and his words about strengthening democracy were apt for the current situation".

The CM also recalled the contributions of Maharaja Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar for the development of the region. 

DCM D K Shivakumar said, "We prayed for good rains, during Dasara, last year. This year, the Goddess has blessed with good rains across the State. We offered bagina to KRS, Kabini, Almatti and Thunga Bhadra reservoirs, which are full. We offered Rs 2,000 to Goddess Chamundeshwari first, before we launched Gruha Lakshmi scheme and promised to fulfill our words to the people". The DCM described Hampana as the 'pailwan' of the literary world. 

Chairman of Dasara Executive Committee H C Mahadevappa said, "We held a state-wide drive and formed the longest human chain to create awareness on democracy and to strengthen it. We prayed for triumph over anti-democratic attempts by some people."