Spread the love



















Bank Dismisses, Reinstates Employees over Intercaste Marriage

Bengaluru: When so much of noise is created when interfaith marriages take place, a row over an intercaste marriage within the same community has taken a different twist.

Rakesh, hailing from the Mogaveera community, worked for the Hotel Industrialists Co-Operative Bank here. He and his colleague, Unnati, a Brahmin, fell in love and got legally married seven months ago.

Subsequently, they got sacked from the bank for no valid reasons at all. They made every effort to get justice but there was no effect.

Some progressive thinkers got together this week under the leadership of ‘Agni’ Shridhar and took steps to render justice to them.

He along with Banandur Kempaiah, Indudhar Honnapur, Dr Venkataswamy, Anant Nayak, Krishna Masadi, Manjunath Adde, Shrinivas Kariappa and others approached the bank management. After discussions, the management is said to have instructed the couple to report to duty from Monday, June 27.

Enquiries made with several people around has revealed a curious background. The friends of Rakesh have hinted that Unnati’s paternal uncle Prabhakar Halambi may have had a hand in it.

Halambi was the president of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat until recently and is the influential head of the hotel industry sector.

He has been suspected of having exerted pressure on the bank to sack the couple as he holds sway over the management. Efforts were made to get his response but there was no success.

Rakesh’s friends have said that there was no strong forum for the Mogaveera community in the city, which could have taken up his case.

However, with the assured reinstatement of the couple in the bank, the matter may have ended on a happy note.

When mangalorean.com contacted Unnati regarding the discriminatory stand taken by her employer, she said the termination order had been withdrawn by the management and they had been asked to resume from June 27. They would like to treat it as a closed chapter and would happily continue working for the bank with dedication.