Billava padayatra ends up as a whimper, followers stage mutiny

Mangaluru: The most hyped padayatra of Billava cohorts between Mangaluru to Bengaluru via Shivamogga and Udupi that began on Friday from Mangaluru has lost steam on the second day itself. What was supposed to have 5,000 people marching with Pranavananda Swamiji at the end of the day on Saturday there were only 20 people.

When the padayatra started on Saturday from Vishnumurthy temple in Kulai there were 60 people walking with the Swamiji. At Haleyangadi the participant numbers had dropped to 20. Few people joined in Mulky and the numbers again went up to 40-50, but when the padayatra arrived at Hejmadi toll gate for the night halt for Saturday near the gate there were only 20 people.

The Swamiji spent the night on the Ratha-like trailer which will be makeshift quarters for the Swamiji. According to him, only a handful of his helpers will be with him for the night at Hejmadi and he expects at least 100 people to turn out on Sunday morning towards Udupi.

"The march will still continue and end at Bengaluru and over 5,000 people from the community including cadres, leaders and religious persons will march to claim their rights from the government," Pranavananda Swami of the community had told on Thursday.

"We are looking for a corpus of Rs. 1000 crore from the government for taking up systematic and structured development of the community that have had no socio-economic and political benefits so far, it is not that there were no leaders, we have great leaders in the Indian National Congress from our community that includes B Janardhana Poojary and Sarekoppa Bangarappa who have been the functionaries at the state and central government in different time frames. But the demands of the community in today's world are different, there are pressing issues when our community must advance into the future with a new kind of social order, particularly the youth, which is why we are demanding the Billava, Namdhari, and Eediga Development Board. I am not disappointed or disheartened due to the subdued response to the Padayatra" Pranavananda Swamiji told Hans News Service.