Minister for Water Resources M.B. Patil has said he would urge the government to withdraw all public holidays notified in honour of prominent historical personalities and instead extend the working hours of government offices by at least an hour on those days.
Birth anniversaries of eminent social leaders like Basaveshawara or B.R.Ambedkar were declared a public holiday to enable people to ponder over their message, he said after inaugurating the Basaveshwara Jayanti programme organised by the Kannada and Culture Department.
“Unfortunately, people tend to [waste the time in entertainment] by watching the television during such holidays. It contradicts the government's objective in shutting down offices for that day," Mr. Patil said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Recalling one of the vachanas [verses] of Basaveshwara that says ‘Kayakave Kailasa’, meaning work is worship, Mr. Patil said the 12th century social reformer equated work with worship and divinity.
“What we are doing is quite the opposite of it - which is [idling our time.] I will urge the government to withdraw the holidays and extend the working hours by one hour. It would be a real tribute to Basaveshwara,” he said.
The Basava philosophy, according to him, was to universal in nature but was limited to only Kanadda.
ADVERTISEMENT
The BLDE Association, he said, had set aside Rs. 1 crore and formed a committee headed by veteran write, M. M. Kalburgi to translate all vachanas into globally popular languages such as English and French.
An inter-caste marriage took place during the event.