It is necessary to create Kannada speaking environment in Karnataka: CM Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru (Karnataka): Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday stressed upon the need to create an environment where Kannada is spoken in Karnataka and make the language indispensable in the state.

Siddaramaiah was speaking after launching the logo of Karnataka Sambhrama- 50 organized by the Department of Kannada and Culture at Vidhana Soudha on the occasion of the 50th year of renaming Mysuru State as Karnataka.

Siddaramaiah said “We are all Kannadigas, people speaking different languages have settled in Kannada land, since the unification of Karnataka.

Everyone living in Karnataka should also learn to speak Kannada. In states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, it is impossible to sustain without learning the local language but here in Karnataka you can sustain even if you don’t speak Kannada and this is the difference between our state and other neighbouring states.”

Talking about Kannadigas’ generosity Siddaramaiah said, “Even after 68 years of Karnataka’s unification, it is not appropriate that Kannada atmosphere could not be created in the state. Instead of Kannadigas teaching our language to others, we are learning their language first. This attitude of Kannadigas is not good from the point of view of language development and development of the state, language and culture. In some parts of the state, the diaspora does not speak Kannada at all. Kannadigas are not without self-respect.

But this is happening because of their generosity.

The CM further said that we should love other languages and religions but we should not forget our own language and held Negligence responsible for non-implementation of Kannada in administration.

“The craze for English has also increased amongst us, many of my ministers and especially officers write notes in English only. English can be used while writing to the central government and other states, but otherwise the rest of the administrative work should be done in Kannada. Although Kannada has been the official language for many years, negligence may have been the main reason behind non implementation of Kannada in administration”, said CM.

Karnataka was unified on 1 November 1956, before the unification of Karnataka, many parts belonged to other states. After the declaration of reorganization of states on the basis of regional languages, many people fought for the unification of Karnataka under the leadership of Aluru Venkataraya. Although Rajyotsava was traditionally celebrated, the State was known as Mysore State. It got its name because it was ruled by the royal family of Mysore.

After the reorganization, many regions from Karnataka, Andhra, Tamil Nadu states merged to become Karnataka. It was renamed as Karnataka on November 1, 1973 when Devaraja Urs became the Chief Minister. The unified State was renamed as Karnataka and name was mentioned in Aluru Venkataraya’s book called Karnataka Gatavaibhava, the CM said.