Chikkamagaluru: Chikkamagaluru unit of Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Lingayat Mahasabha has resolved to seek Karnataka Ratna posthumously for freedom fighter and state unification movement activist Bheemanna Khandre, with Rambhapuri mutt seer Prasanna Renuka Veerasomeshwara Rajadeshikendra Shivacharya extending support.The resolution was passed at the Pratibha Puraskara function held in the seer’s presence Tuesday.“Bheemanna Khandre should be given Karnataka Ratna. It will be support to great work he has done. He suffered in freedom struggle and did good to society,” the seer said, urging govt to confer the award in coming days.He said Bheemanna Khandre provided justice to over 1,000 poor people through free legal aid, kept Kannada alive among Kannadigas during Hyderabad Nizam’s rule despite oppression, and worked with Chennabasava Pattadevaru in building the modern Anubhava Mantapa at Basava Kalyana.Mahasabha district president HM Lokesh said the committee decided to recommend it to CM.Inaugurating the function, RDPR minister Eshwara B Khandre said India is rich in talented human resources and Veerashaiva Lingayat mutts have contributed immensely to nurturing talent.“The credit of imparting knowledge through Akshara, Ashraya and Anna Dasoha without discrimination goes to our mutts,” he said.Khandre said no community should suppress another and if any community has embraced all and given social justice, it is the Veerashaiva Lingayat community. Lingayats and Veerashaivas are not different but two sides of the same coin, as written by Siddaganga Mutt’s former seer Shivakumara Swami, he asserted.He said healthy children are needed for a healthy society and urged youth to focus on physical fitness and stay away from addictions. Flagging El Nino and global warming, he said nature must be conserved.“If money is lost nothing is lost, if health is lost something is lost, but if character is lost everything is lost,” he said.
