Cancel birth anniversary holidays, says Horatti

Chairman opposes holidays for birth anniversaries, urges meaningful activities to honor great personalities and their contributions.

Disagreeing with the trend of declaring holidays to celebrate the birth anniversaries of eminent people, Chairman of Legislative Council Basavaraj Horatti has said that the objective itself will get defeated by declaration of holidays.

Speaking at the 525th birth anniversary celebrations of saint-poet Kanakadasa organised by the district administration at Alur Venkatrao Bhavan in Dharwad on Monday, he said that the objective of celebrating the birth anniversaries is to motivate the younger generation to imbibe the values and ideologies of great personalities.

However, declaring holiday on the day will defeat its very purpose, he said.

Expressing concern over declining moral values in society, Mr. Horatti said that to strengthen the social fabric and inculcate moral values, schools and colleges should organise special programmes.

He also expressed dissent over people confining great people to particular castes. “Kanakadasa is not confined to Kuruba community alone,” he said and emphasised the need for remembering the contributions of Kanakadasa and another saint-poet Valmiki to society.

Mr. Horatti said that he will urge the government to reverse the decision of announcing holidays on birth anniversaries but conduct special talks and other meaningful activities to recall and popularise their works.

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said that Kanakadasa made significant contributions to Kannada literature, composing numerous devotional songs. Among his works, Mohana Tarangini gained prominence and he composed 316 kirtans. Kanakadasa lived beyond caste distinctions, he said.