Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing the nation on the occasion of the 71st Independence Day of India, from the ramparts of Red Fort, gave the country a new slogan of ‘Bharat jodo’ (join Indian). The main motto of the PM to launch this slogan was to ban the hostilities carries in India on the names of caste, creed, religion and language and unite the nation as one.

Modi believed that this slogan will impact the people and change their ideology, however, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah does not seem to be on the same ground with the PM on this. The statements of Siddaramaiah is raising question marks on the dream of Modi of a united India.

In his speech on the Independence Day Siddaramaiah said that Kannada is the mother tongue of Karnataka and the government will not implement Hindi as the state language. He explicitly said that it is unconstitutional to implement any language as the state language other than the local mother tongue. The dispute between the Hindi and Kannada language is sharply and rapidly increasing in the state. A few days ago, while on one hand Hindi signboards were removed in Bengaluru, on the other hand on Wednesday, news of some Tamil-language posters being torn was heard. In July the activists of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedic organization had either removed the Hindi signboards or painted them black.

Kannada Development Authority (KDA) had also written a letter to the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, requesting him to include the Kannada font in the apple products. After a survey was done for the Kannada language in June, the option of having a Kannada keyboard in apple products made for India was adopted. In the protest against making Hindi a state language, after removing the Hindi signboards, all the bank employees were also ordered to learn Kannada in six months or they would be expelled from the job. The Karnataka government has also requested all the schools and colleges to teach Kannada as the second language.

Last month Karnataka had also demanded a flag of their own arguing that there was no provision mentioned in the Constitution that a state cannot have its own flag. This demand for a separate flag was condemned across the nation and BJP said that having an own state flag will be against the unity of India. The state government had made a panel of 9 members to decide the design and logo for the flag. But in India, no other state has its own flag other than Jammu and Kashmir under section 370 has its different flag.

According to the political experts, the language issue is only being raised to create a platform the state assembly elections due next year, because if the Constitution of the country gives the State the right to enrich its mother tongue under Article 350 (a), then Article 351 has been said to promote Hindi language with the help of provincial languages. This all is done to gain attention and lure the local voters.