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Congress ministers bat for Balabrooie

Pai exhorts all Bengalureans to rally

Bengaluru: It isn't just the apolitical artist and the city's army of heritage and conservationists who are against the wrecker's ball coming down on Balabrooie. Young Turks in the Congress party including two ministers in Chief Minister, Siddarmaiah's cabinet strongly feel that the government guest house must be preserved.

Careful to term their views as "personal", and not the party's view or the government's, Agriculture minister, Krishna Byregowda and Food and civil supplies minister, Dinesh Gundurao said any club that came up on the premises should not change the 200 year old building's basic structure.

"There is lot vacant space available in the premises where Balabrooie Guest House is situated. There is no harm in utilising this space to build a club for legislators, but certainly not at the cost of the heritage value of that building," he said, adding a Legislators Club on the lines of

Constitution Club would definitely help improve the present status of the guest house. “A Constitution Club for legislators can be built without spoiling the heritage nature of the Balabrooie,” he added.

Mr Gundurao said the very word club evokes lot of ill feelings. Concurring with both, another young legislators, N. A. Haris too added that preserving heritage value is the responsibility of everyone including MLAs and representatives. "We are not in favour of demolition of such an important structure, but it can accommodate a modern structure like a Legislators club," he said.

Civic activists, theatre personalities and other members of Save Balabrooie Committee urged the state government to immediately stop the plans to demolish the historical building.

They said that the iconic building had played host to eminent personalities such as Rabindranath Tagore, Indira Gandhi, Sir M. Visvesvarayya and former chief ministers S.Nijalingappa, B.D. Jatti, D. Devaraj Urs and S.R. Bommai.

During the occasion, former Infosys honcho Mohandas Pai called upon all the Bengalureans to join hands in this movement to save the heritage building.

“This is movement to save the soul of the city. There are many collective memories of Bengaluru like its lanes, sights, places, roads and other things. If our soul is lost, the city becomes a
collection of concrete buildings. All the citizens should come together to save the city’s soul. What is a city without its soul?” he said.

Theatre artist and film producer B. Suresha said it is saddening to know that the government wants to build a club in the place of building which has supreme historical importance. “I wonder whose idea it was to remodel Balabrooie into a legislators’ club.

There are acres of land lying vacant in the city. Why has the government chosen this place? It is saddening that the archaeology department has not even considered it as a heritage building,” he said.

The committee members, who have called upon Bengalureans to join the movement, will hold a silent demonstration in front of Balabrooie at 11 am on Sunday.

A witness to many landmark decisions

The nearly 150-year-old Balabrooie stands tall as a symbol of social justice, empowerment and power in the history of state politics. Many revolutionary programmes such as the Land Reforms Act, Karnataka Debt Relief Act and Backward Class Commission were all approved and passed from this heritage building.

The elevation of Devaraj Urs to the helm in 1972 led to a strong political upheaval and many names of several backward classes came into prominence during his tenure. Sociologist G.K. Karanth said Mr Urs changed the face of caste representative politics in the country and it all happened from Balabrooie.

“Devaraj Urs united the powerless and excluded class, and enjoyed power in their name. He brought together the numerically, politically and economically non-descript castes together and gave them an equal footage with dominant castes. Balabrooie is as important as the event and individuals during the landmark development in Karnataka politics after the Congress split in 1969,” he said.

Though the idea of development started off from Balabrooie, the building was jinxed with many chief ministers refusing to administer the state from here. S.R. Bommai, the last chief minister to run office in Balabrooie, too had short stint as CM. This further strengthened the jinx attached to the building. However, to many Bengalureans, Balabrooie is a fond symbol of a bygone era.

( Source : dc correspondent )
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