The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : For the love of the beast

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Friday, May 02, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

For the love of the beast

Bageshree S.

Vatal Nagaraj includes ‘donkey welfare’ in his party manifesto

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Novel protest: A file picture of Vatal Nagaraj staging a protest with animals in Bangalore.

Bangalore: Vatal Nagaraj will win hands down if there was ever a contest to determine the best animal lover among all the candidates in the fray for the coming Assembly elections in Karnataka.

The die-hard Kannada activist and president of Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha — who has in the past held protests in his inimitable style with animals including buffaloes, goats, camels and other members of the animal kingdom — has this time outdone himself by including “donkey welfare” in his party manifesto.

The brief, two-page manifesto, of course, lists out a series of pro-Kannada measures that the party will take up if voted to power. It promises to carry out all administrative work in Kannada, resolve problems faced by people in border areas and northern Karnataka and implement the Mahajan Committee report among other things. But in the middle of all this, it says that donkeys in the State have been neglected and the party will implement a “comprehensive plan for their welfare” if voted to power.

This is indeed the first-of-its-kind promise in any party’s manifesto. While the holy cow might be an important priority for some parties, none have spoken of the humble donkey.

Mr. Nagaraj has his own unmatched logic on why he picks the donkey to shower such kindness. “A donkey, after all, is the most hard-working animal, but the most neglected,” he says. “It is the most loyal and trustworthy of them all.” Taking the argument to a more philosophical plane, he adds: “Donkey is an animal that carries dirty clothes to the dhobi ghat and clean clothes back with equanimity.”

Mr. Nagaraj’s bond with the animals has a long history. In March this year, Mr. Nagaraj brought bullock carts in a rally from Mysore Bank Circle to K.R. Circle to protest against the poor traffic management in the city. A time will come, he had said, when people will have to use helicopters to commute from one place to another.

Needless to say the protest created yet another round of traffic jams. In his protest against the Iraq war in 2003, he brought donkeys and camels in a procession.

With the manifesto, Mr. Nagaraj has carried this long-standing bond to another level. It’s a pity donkeys do not cast votes.

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