The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : State should be saved of fundamentalist violence: seer

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 26, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

State should be saved of fundamentalist violence: seer

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: Progressive thinkers, who form a minority, today have to shoulder the big responsibility of saving Karnataka from a cycle of fundamentalist violence. And those who choose to be fence sitters in the name of neutrality at this point in history are as dangerous as the fundamentalists, Shivamurthy Muragharajendra Swamiji of Brihanmath, Chitradurga, has said.

Speaking at a seminar on "Kambalapalli Dalit killings, the judgement and society's response" organised by the Progressive Thinkers and Organisations Forum, he said fundamentalism had become part of the collective psyche. Interest groups were fanning communal sentiments in the name of events such as Virat Hindu Samajotsava, he said.

"It is easy to light the fire. It is hard to douse the flames," the seer said.

Speaking about the Kambalapalli case in which all the accused were acquitted, N.V. Narasimhaiah, a member of the forum, said the decision pointed to a flaw in the larger system where a witness could not speak against the powerful. He said that of the 1,500 and odd cases booked under Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (1989), there had not been a single conviction so far.

The former judge and writer Ko. Chennabasappa said that legislation alone did not bring about change. Even existing provisions were not being used effectively, and what was really needed was a change of attitudes in society, he added.

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