Railway authorities relented and agreed to change the paint colour to avoid unnecessary controversy: Kalaburagi Railway Manager.
The Kalaburagi Railway Junction painted green recently
Hindutva activists in the Kalaburagi district of Karnataka on Tuesday, 13 December, made sure that the railway authorities relented to their demand of changing the shade of the paint of the Kalaburagi Junction railway station.
The station was painted green a couple of weeks ago, as part of the renovation work, and the activists claimed this apparently gave the railway station “a mosque-like look”.
Kalaburagi railway authorities confirmed to South First that although 90 percent of the painting of the station had been completed, they had decided to repaint it with the Pista colour “to avoid controversy”.
Around 40-50 members of the Hindu Jagruti Sene (HJS) gathered in front of the railway station around 11 am on Tuesday and started protesting and sloganeering against railway authorities.
The baffled railway officials met with the activists who handed them a memorandum to them stating that they would want the railway station to be repainted with a different colour within 15 days.
The memorandum submitted by the Hindu Jagruti Sene to the Kalaburagi Station Manager
The HJS’ Kalaburagi district president Laxmikant Swadi told South First that their members had observed the renovation work at the railway station, especially the dominance of green paint.
“Moreover, several members of the general public started complaining to us that the railway station looked like a mosque as it was painted green,” Swadi said.
“We decided to protest against this and made sure that the rail authorities changed the colour of the railway station,” he added.
Meanwhile, Kalaburagi Railway Manager SN Desai told South First that the architect and the top management decided on the colour of the paint and combinations they would opt for the railway station.
“The architect along with the top management at the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) and the General Manager (GM) levels from the Sholapur division has decided upon the colour of the paint. The work tender was floated and the awarded contractors and subcontractors carried out the work,” Desai told South First.
HJS members who gathered to agitate expressed apprehensions about whether the architect or any of the DRMs or GMs belonged to a minority community.
Soon after the protests, the railway authorities decided to repaint the green colour, starting with a white coat, and initiated the repainting work later in the day.
“Around 90 percent of the railway station was painted green, and the general manager was supposed to come for an inspection on Wednesday. However, that inspection has been postponed due to this repainting work,” Desai told South First.
The HJS activists dispersed after the protests as the railway officials relented to their demands.
This is not the first incident of an innocuous action being given a communal colour in Karnataka, a state that is heading for polls in a month or two.
Mysuru-Kodagu segment Lok Sabha member and BJP leader Pratap Simha sparked controversy in November when he said all structures with one “gumbaz” — a dome — surrounded by two such similar structures were mosques.
Simha even threatened to bulldoze two domes built on a bus shelter on the Ooty-Bengaluru Road near JSS College in Mysuru.
The shelter was being built by SA Ramdas, a BJP MLA from the Krishnaraja constituency, who stood his ground.
He said the shelter was not in line with any religious architecture, but the design matched the local royal palace’s architecture.
As the controversy snowballed, Kalasas — pots often used in Hindu rituals — suddenly appeared on the three domes.
Subsequently, the shelter was reshaped and repainted, and Simha had his way over Ramdas.
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