Two lives, one region & how coastal Karnataka lost today

In a span of a week, hate won, love lost, political scores enhanced in the name of two young, talented, productive lives gone forever.

The people of Coastal Karnataka have lost today. Political parties have won. Religious divide has won and we have lost. Time and again we forget that Karnataka is a place that welcomes each other, fosters peace, we are a race that are greater and mightier and better than many put together, yet we get emotionally caught due to the politics of hate, politics of division, politics of religious consumptions.

Hate and killing in Karnataka’s coastal region needs an alternative as we are losing the following precious things so dear to us:

1. Coastal Karnataka is losing industries and due to which our youth are not having the kind of jobs they deserve, a kind of glorious future that is rightfully theirs.
2. Coastal Karnataka can boast of a resplendent heritage, culture, yet is being sucked in a poisonous game of hatred peddled by few political leaders to ensure supremacy over their people.
3. Coastal Karnataka has a rich natural and scenic beauty which can be the tourism capital of India, yet we have not even cultivated 1/4^th of the tourism potential.
4. Our youth are so talented, yet so ignorant and caught up in the tom and jerry war played by some and get carried away with the irresponsible media stories.
5. The region of Karnataka’s coast in Dakshina Kannada’s Mangalore is one of the 7 wonders of India yet we haven’t seen foreign direct investments sweeping this belt with millions of jobs created.
6. There is a potential to role out Metro rail lines from Kasaragod to Kundapur which can be a game changer in the travel spaces with multiple stops across the coastal lines, but when our energies is focused on politics of hatred, we have lost the game before we have even started the race.

People of Coastal Karnataka, I appeal to you to refocus on what we want, what future we need for ourselves and for those who come after us. Can we think of building Mangalore into an International City? Can we get Disneyland to Mangalore’s Coast? Can we be an example of sustainable tourism? Can we be a safe haven for students, for families, for industries, so that our own people benefit through economics of jobs, growth and opportunities?

This is our opportunity, our time to tell a new story. When I meet people from Delhi, they recall our city as a belt of communal divide, of hatred and honor killings. I am sure this is not the vision we have for all of us. We are collectively better than those political fellows who spit venom every moment.

Let our land thrive in beauty and in peace. After all we are children of this soil, if not us, who, if not now, when? Jai Hind.