It has, of late, been the practice for Chief Ministers to visit religious maths just after being appointed to the high post. But Chief Minister-designate Siddaramaiah broke the tradition by opting to meet senior Kannada writers first thing on Saturday morning to seek their advice.
Mr. Siddaramaiah’s first stop was the residence of G.S. Shivarudrappa in Banashankari to inquire about the health of the octogenarian ‘Rashtrakavi’. Mr. Shivarudrappa asked Mr. Siddaramaiah to make Karnataka liveable for all.
“You will have my blessings always,” Mr. Shivarudrappa told Mr. Siddaramaiah.
Meets Kambar
Mr. Siddaramaiah’a next destination was playwright and poet Chandrashekar Kambar’s place. Mr. Kambar told Mr. Siddaramaiah to approve the Unicode software support for Kannada. He said that nothing had been done for the past three years to get approval and the file was gathering dust in the Chief Minister’s office. “It was the dream of late Purnachandra Tejaswi; please make it come true,” Mr. Kambar said.
Mr. Siddaramaiah then visited the residence of Jnanpith award-winning writer U.R. Ananthamurthy in Dollars Colony. Mr. Ananthamurthy, along with fellow writers K. Marulasidddappa and others, had supported Congress in the run-up to the elections. Describing the Congress as the “lesser evil” compared with other political parties, they had appealed to voters to opt for the Congress for a secular and stable State government.
‘Commit no mistake’
Mr. Ananthamurthy said that it was the responsibility of all to see that Mr. Siddaramaiah does not commit any mistake succumbing to “pressure”.
