Mangaluru: Saddened by the controversy brought on by Vishwa Hindu Parishat (VHP) that followed Chief Whip of Legislative Council Ivan D’Souza’s plan of celebrating Deepavali in Kadri Manjunatha Temple, he said that the celebrations will go on but at a different venue. Ivan D’Souza had informed about the celebration of Deepavali on a joy of giving note by distributing rice and spectacles.
The same decision of Ivan D’Souza was criticized by VHP regional working president Prof. M B Puranik on Wednesday, 26 October while accusing Ivan of involving in vote bank politics. In response to the statement made by Prof. Puranik, Ivan addressed a press conference at his office in Mangaluru City Corporation on Thursday, 27 October and spoke out of disappointment that he had no hidden agenda of gaining votes in this manner.
He further said, “I had mentioned in my earlier address that the celebration of Deepavali from our side was to involve people of all communities in celebrating the festival of light. We had celebrated Iftaar after Ramadan and we will be celebrating Christmas in December. Amrit Kadri, one of the 50 member committee formed to arrange Deepavali celebration said that Kadri temple’s Rajangana and Abhisheka Mandir were fit for the competitions and other programmes.”
“I have always been a devotee of Kadri Manjunatha and when Amrit mentioned about the temple, we thought it would be best to celebrate it there. We received permission from the temple authorities. It was disheartening to hear what followed from VHP and we don’t want to fight in this matter because it is a widely celebrated festival of lights and joy. So we shifted the venue to Gorakshanatha Hall in Kadri”, he said.
All the festivities will be held as planned on 29 October starting at 3 PM at the Gorakshanatha hall. Three competitions- elocution, painting competition and ‘Goodudeepa’ competition etc will be held for school and college students. Over one thousand beneficiaries will be given rice on the occasion by District In-charge Minsiter Ramanath Rai and four hundred beneficiaries from the medical camp conducted recently will be given spectacles by local Congress leader Nagendra Kumar.
