Sir,

The Mysuru City Corporation Works Committee had approved a proposal to install a statue of late Chief Minister D. Devaraja Urs at the junction of D.D. Urs Road and JLB Road where the CITB wanted to create a Circle specially for the purpose. This was, if I remember right, in the month of August, 1987.

According to reports published then, the statue was to be provided by the D. Devaraja Urs Memorial Committee to be installed at the Circle. Simultaneously, the CITB had taken a decision to install the statue of the last Maharaja of Mysore Sri Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar at the same spot.

Now that the statue of Sri Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar has already been installed at the Hardinge Circle, will the MUDA or the MCC install the statue of Devaraja Urs at the junction of JLB Road and Devaraja Urs Road which is still available?

Probably, among all the Chief Ministers of Karnataka, it was only Devaraja Urs who had the longest stint in office for eight years and who had effectively implemented the Land Reforms Act, thereby providing land to the landless in a manner no other State in India could do.  Not only this, it was Devaraja Urs, who gave voice and also positions in government office to the SC/ST of the State in a way that  was not seen in any other State at that time.

Sadly, in the 1980 Parliamentary election, when he had formed his own party after breaking away from Indira Gandhi and fielded candidates, he could not get even one seat. Apparently, those who benefited from such a great political reformist did not support him. Kaliyuga !

I am sure if he had succeeded he would have surely brought in more beneficial  reforms, reservations and helped the poor and the underprivileged to economically come up in life.

But, that was not to be. Even Siddharamaiah could not do to SC/ST and the underprivileged what the political visionary Devaraja Urs could do in his very first five years. Siddharamaiah was doling out freebies like food items and frivolous ‘bhagyas’ which should only help them to lead a status-quo life without working for most of the days.

For these reasons, it would be appropriate to commemorate the memory of D. Devaraja Urs with a grand statue in Mysuru city, the district from where he hailed, before his 102nd birth anniversary on August 20, 2017.

It is unfortunate instead of being grateful to this man of vision, who has left a legacy that could not be matched by those who succeeded him, he has been treated unjustly and denied his rightful place among the political leaders of Karnataka. This statue in Mysuru would only be a token expression of a grateful people.

– K.B. Ganapathy, Mysuru, 20.5.2017