Bangalore: Two renowned Kannada writers have joined Nandan Nilekani's campaign team in Karnataka. Both Dr. U R Ananthamurthy and Girish Karnad are Jnanapeeth award winning writers and celebrated social activists, not only in Karnataka, but also in rest of India. Girish Karnad has been doing a door to door campaign for Nandan Nilekani, who is contesting on the Congress ticket from Bangalore South Lok Sabha seat.
Ailing Ananthamurthy has expressed his support to Nilekani in a press meet. While Ananthamurthy has been active in the political circles of Karnataka since the hey days of socialist movement in the 1950s and 1960s, Karnad is not known for taking a political stand or participating in an election campaign.
Karnad is also a veteran film actor, who is well known in Kannada, Tamil and Hindi cinema. Incidentally, both Nilekani and Karnad are originally from Sirsi a small town in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka and belong to the miniscule Chitrapura Saraswata Brahmin caste, whose total population is less than 30,000 in the World. Nilekani is a small village near Sirsi.
Karnad dismissed the reports that he is backing Nandan Nilekani because both belong to the same caste. An angry Karnad said, "I have never encouraged caste politics in my entire life. Our caste has nothing to do with this. Nandan Nilekani is a good candidate. He has a clean image and he will be a good MP. Sitting BJP MP Ananthkumar has done nothing for Bangalore South and he should be defeated".
Ananthamurthy claims that Nilekani is a good person and he should be elected to the Parliament.
However, their critics are questioning the decision and motive. They argue that Karnad has never been a part of any popular movement in Karnataka and his stand on major issues like Cauvery dispute, primacy of Kannada language in every sphere of life etc are not known.
Ananthamurthy made a controversial statement late last year saying that he won't be living in a country ruled by Narendra Modi. It led to a lot of criticism and some of Modi supporters even sent him money asking him to leave India. But, Ananthamurthy had earlier supported B S Yeddyurappa saying that he is a farmers' leader and a good person. His critics call him an opportunist, who changes his stand depending on the public mood and 'personal' gains.
However Ananthamurthy dismisses all these allegations saying that he speaks truth and it hurts many people.
A popular Kannada comedian and a farmer BJP leader Mukyamantri Chandru has also joined Nandan Nilekani's campaign team as a star campaigner.
Both Ananthamurthy and Girish Karnad are close to chief minister Siddaramaiah and advise him on issues related to governance. Karnada has always been a vocal critic of the BJP and the RSS.
Another close friend of Nilekani, eminent historian Ramachandra Guha has stayed away from politics and maintains his neutrality.
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