Karnataka not to interfere in Mysore royals' festivities

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah says it is exclusive privilege of Wadiyar family and the government would not like to interfere with it

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, conducting of religious rites connected with the Dasara festivities and the private Durbar was left to the Wadiyar family.

He said, it was the exclusive privilege of the Wadiyar family and the government would not like to interfere with it. Declining to react to the statement of the late scion of the Mysore royal family Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar’s wife Pramoda Devi for a solution to the palace issue, he said at the Mandakalli Airport that the dispute over the erstwhile royal family’s property was in the Supreme Court.

Pramoda Devi on Saturday last had asked the state government to resolve the dispute over their property in Mysore and Bangalore so that they could go ahead with the ‘Khas Durbar’ and other Dasara rituals just as in the previous years in the Mysore Palace, and would also help her name a successor to her late husband.

“It is in the hands of the government. It can settle the issue once for all,” she had said, asking the government to withdraw the 1996 and 1998 legislations on acquisition of the Mysore and Bangalore Palaces and also the court cases relating to it.

Prior to the elections, she had recalled, political leaders who had met her husband and sought his support had promised to resolve the issues if they came to power. But, so far, nothing had happened. A letter addressed to the government had also not elicited response, she had lamented.

With Tuesday’s response by Siddaramaiah to her appeal, it is clear that the government is in no mood to resolve the issue out of court and the holding of the private Durbar and naming a successor hangs in balance as Pramoda Devi alone has to take a decision in this regard. Indications are that the rituals might be limited to basic minimum to continue the tradition.

Asked about SpiceJet withdrawing its operations from Mysore, the CM said, regular commercial operations would become viable after the expansion of the Mandakalli Airport.

On the Arkavathy layout denotification, he reiterated it was done during the Bharatiya Janata Party regime. He maintained that the issue would not affect the Congress in the forthcoming by-elections.

Image: People attend the annual Dussehra celebration in Mysore. Photograph: Jagadeesh Nv/Reuters