The Karnataka Assembly speaker UT Khader is facing criticism for its decision to invite religious leaders to give inspirational talks to newly elected legislators. Khader had earlier said that people including Rajya Sabha member and trustee of the Dharmasthala temple Veerendra Heggade, and founder of Art of Living Sri Sri Ravishankar would be among the speakers invited.
Jagruta Nagarika Karnataka, a citizens’ collective, has condemned the decision to invite religious personalities to address first-time MLAs. Members of the collective said the MLAs should listen to people who talk about social justice, democracy, constitutional values, and secularism, and not religious values.
“You have invited advocates of communal policies and controversial persons. We are concerned about the kind of role models such speakers can provide to new legislators,” the collective said in a statement. “The MLAs should develop scientific temper. The people of the state have decimated the BJP that engaged in communal politics and voted to uphold democratic values,” it added.
The statement was signed by personalities including activist KS Vimala, writers SG Siddaramaiah and K Marulasiddappa, and academic Rajendra Chenni. The event is scheduled to be held from June 26 to June 29.
Reacting to criticism over the state government's decision, Khader told reporters in Mangaluru that the speakers list is yet to be finalised.
“The training for newly elected MLAs will be through experts including H K Patil, B L Shankar, T B Jayachandra, Krishna Byregowda, Mukyamantri Chandru, Siddaramaiah, B S Yediyurappa, MPs, and others to make them understand their roles as legislators. Along with this, spiritual sessions will be conducted to make the MLAs work without stress. We have planned to invite a few spiritual leaders. However, we have not received confirmation yet from all of them," Khader said.
He added that the initiative should be reviewed after it is concluded. "Those who criticise the training programme should wait and see the outcome of it. They can give us feedback about such training programmes in the future," Khader said.