Kalaburagi: On day one of the 85th Kannada Sahithya Sammelana in Kalaburagi, activist Neela K who participated in a panel discussion on the developmental concerns of the Kalyana-Karnataka region, urged the Sahithya Parishat chairman Manu Baligar to step down as he is a mute spectator of the Sringeri Sahithya Sammelana controversy and the FIR against a poet for reciting a poem on the CAA and NRC.
Raising the issue, she stated that it is sad to see Baligar silent when the government funding to the Sringeri Sahithya Sammelana and when it was threatened with petrol bombs.
She also urged the writers to come in support for the Kannada writers who are charged with sedition for raising their voices on behalf of the people.
Neela K also urged the state government to withdraw the cases slapped against a private school in Bidar, saying that it is inhuman to target children (police questioned the children at the school for the fifth time on Tuesday).
BJP leader Basavaraj Patil Sedam, who presided over the panel discussion, stated that he will not react to any of her statements in his concluding remarks.
