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on 2007/1/26 4:45:59
Who should chair the World Kannada conference? Should it be a Kannadiga who doesn't own up her roots but has international acclaim or a Kannadiga who has worked for the growth and development of Karnataka?
That’s the big question bothering the intellectuals of Karnataka and at the centre of this raging debate is Bollywood actor and former beauty queen Aishwarya Rai - a Kannadiga by birth who has never publicly acknowledged her roots.
While many from Karnataka consider her to be one of the country's shining stars – who has also made the nation proud on an international arean - others are equally staunch in their disapproval.
So much so that the “Bollywood’s hottest star” has Karnataka on the boil.
“No it's not a good idea (to have her chair the conference), the reason is that she has not done anything for the Kannada team citizens,” says one Kannadiga.
Others agree. “She doesn't know how to speak Kannada. A chief guest who doesn't know how to speak the language cannot sit in that seat. I don't think she is suitable for it.”
Similar voices can be heard across the state. Aishwarya's family hails from Dakshina Kannada district, and the suggestion to have her as the chairperson was originally made by Belgaum MP Suresh Angadi.
Angadi also suggested that the dais be named after the actor. But it has left many literary figures - who believe there are more deserving candidates – fuming.
“I don't think that Aishwarya Rai is the right choice for that. I wish that she would be able to speak in Kannada coz Kannada is the language of the land,” says President, Kannada Sahitya Parishad, Chandrashekhar Patil.
Other scholars are understated in their reproach. “We feel we can have her as one of our guests and definitely not to preside over the whole conference,” says Kannada cultural secretary, I M Vittal Murthy.
With the literati up in arms, the decision on who should chair the event has now been left to Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.
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