Following confusion over the date of birth of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, founder of Bengaluru, the State Government has cancelled Kempegowda Jayanti slated on April 17.
Nirmalanandanatha Swamy, head of Adichunchanagiri Math, had suggested the Government to cancel the birth anniversary celebrations on Monday following differences among scholars and historians about the date of birth.
Earlier, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar had announced that celebrations would be conducted in a grand manner at the Banquet Hall of the Vidhana Soudha and a procession would be taken from Freedom Park to Soudha on April 17.
Sources said the Government had decided to celebrate Kempegowda’s birth anniversary to woo the dominant Vokkaliga community keeping next year’s poll in mind. The Government even constituted Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Development Authority, headed by Chief Minister, to chalk out plans for the celebrations.
Sources in the State secretariat told The Hindu that Sri Nirmalanandanatha Swamy had called a meeting of intellectuals and historians at the Math and discussed about the date of birth of Kempegowda. It was found that there were more than a dozen books on Kempegowda, but there was no unanimity among writers on his date of birth. While some authors and historians say that Kempegowda was born on April 14, some books mentioned his month of birth as June.
The Swamiji suggested Mr. Siddaramaiah and Mr. Shivakumar not to hold the Jayanti celebrations on April 17, because holding the programme organised by the government would establish authenticity of the date of birth, the sources said.
The Government has now decided to constitute an expert panel to probe the exact date of birth of Kempegowda. Based on its recommendation, the government will decide the take next step, sources said.
