Sudden spurt in demand for sahitya parishat membership

Is there a sudden rise in the number of people interested in Kannada language and literature? The surge in the demand for the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) membership makes one think so. The parishat staff are struggling to cope with the applications that are piling up.

According to KSP president Manu Baligar, over 50,000 applications seeking membership have been received since January, with 35,000 received in the last one month.

“We have asked our staff to work overtime to clear the applications,” said Rajashekara Hatagundi, honorary secretary of KSP. “Receipts have been issued for 25,000 applications since March 3, 2016, and another 20,000 applications are pending clearance.”

Those in the know say that the sudden demand does not reflect any new-found interest in language and literature, but relates to the elections to be held in 2019. Since only those who have been members for three years can vote as per KSP rules, aspirants are keen to start on member enrolments early.

While current member figures stand at 2,13,393, it could touch 3 lakh before the polls to be held in May, 2019.

Concern

In a recent meeting convened in the parishat, attended by writers, including G.S. Siddalingaiah, Chidanandamurthy, Pradhan Gurudutt, T.V. Venkatachala Shastry, Chandrashekara Patil and Siddalingiah, a few expressed their concern over the sudden spurt in membership. Some said that it could result in making contesting in elections impossible for those without spending power. The cost involved in sending appeals to 3 lakh members seeking their support would cost a candidate Rs. 11 lakh, they said. However, former president Chandrashekara Patil said sending appeals is not an issue in the days of social media.

Meanwhile, Mr. Baligar insisted the phenomenon was related to people’s new-found faith in KSP, delinking it from electoral politics. Mr. Baligar himself won by a huge margin of 37,931 votes. The victory margin of his predecessor Pundalika Halambi, who died recently, was 6,683 votes. Sources in the parishat said applications are coming mostly from districts where Vokkaligas and Veerashaivas are dominating castes and the future fight to establish control over the parishat will be between these two major communities.