Nearly three dozen eminent personalities on India’s Republic day have written a joint open letter to Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and state’s legislators, expressing their concern over the “frequent violence against religious minorities” in the state.
A group of scientists, writers, academics, artists, and lawyers, have written, concerning about the state’s deteriorating governance and the frequent violence against religious minorities.
Recently, Karnataka has been witnessing an increasing number of violence against minorities, including Christians and Muslims.
“Over the past few months, the state has witnessed the brutal killing of youths in several districts, rampant ‘hate speeches’, public threats and disruptions of worship by religious minorities, ‘honour killings’, ‘moral policing’, misogynistic statements by legislators, and incidents of hostile and violent encounters between various religious groups,” the letter read.
Moreover, the letter stated, “These trends have been encouraged by the callous and un-constitutional statements made by Legislators and the inability of the state machinery to rein-in fringe anti-social groups.”
Allegeding that such trends go against the long history of Karnataka, the signatories said, “as a progressive state it had facilitated social harmony of a plural society and initiated model welfare programs for all sections of the population.”
“The state’s cultural history celebrates the plurality of cultures and religious tolerance and our icons have long been Basavanna, Akkamahadevi, Kanakadasa, Purandaradasa, and Shishunala Sharifa. Our litterateurs, ranging from Bendre to Kuvempu, have celebrated a Karnatakatva that is based on multi-cultural identities that blend together to make a harmonious and rich social fabric, ” the letter said.
It added, “We note with both sadness and alarm that these traditions of tolerance and shared well-being are being torn asunder. Instead, the state is losing its identity on multiple fronts. On the fiscal, administrative, and political fronts Karnataka is losing its federal strength.”
In the letter, the signatories, called up Karnataka government to seriously review these negative trends and “to ensure that the rule of law, the principles of the Constitution, the rights of all citizens, and the basic norms of humaneness prevail.”
“On this special day, as India marks its national status as a ‘Republic’ and as a state within this federal republic, the personalities expressed hope that the government will initiate a period of social harmony, just legislations, and democratic functioning of the state machinery,” the letter concluded.
