There was pandemonium during the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike council meeting on Saturday when Opposition members took objection to a BJP councillor’s statements while condoling the death of Jnanpith award winner writer U.R. Ananthamurthy.
Chamarajpet councillor B.V. Ganesh was speaking on the motion to condone the death of Ananthamurthy and yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar. Quoting D.V. Gundappa’s poem, he said, “Ananthamurthy could not transcend thirst for recognition. The writer spoke of many issues to garner attention rather than the subject. While Ananthamurthy was a great orator, his words often did not match his deeds. Many a time his deeds were not beyond reproach.”
Opposition members took objection to these remarks, leading to a chaotic scenes. Leader of the Opposition in BBMP council Manjunath Reddy demanded that the remarks made by Mr. Ganesh be expunged as they were derogatory. Mayor B.S. Satyanarayana agreed. The Mayor then called upon the members to observe a two-minute silence as a mark of respect for the departed souls. Soon after that he adjourned the council for 15 minutes.
Earlier, Congress councillor Chandrashekar demanded that a road or a circle be named after Ananthamurthy. In response to it, the Mayor said there was a mural of the writer at the Bugle Rock Park.
