Shun English, Communicate In Kannada: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah Tells Ministers, Officers

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that his cabinet colleagues and officers should start preparing notes in Kannada, instead of English as he emphasised on the need to create an environment in the state where using Kannada in day-to-day transactions is natural and indispensable.

“Everyone living in Karnataka should also learn to speak Kannada. In the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana or Uttar Pradesh, it is impossible to live by speaking just Kannada, without learning the local language. But you can live in Karnataka even if you don’t speak Kannada. That is the difference between our State and other states,” he said, adding that this should change.

Siddaramaiah made the remark after unveiling the emblem of ‘Karnataka Sambhrama-50’ to mark the golden jubilee of renaming the Mysore State as Karnataka on November 1, 1973.

Speaking on Kannada not being used as administrative language, he said, “Many of my ministers and especially officers write notes in English only in the files. English can be used while writing to the Centre and other states, but otherwise it should be done in Kannada.”

But within the state, they must use Kannada for communication.

“Although Kannada has been the official language for many decades, negligence may be the reason behind non-implementation of Kannada in administration. Moreover, our craze for English has increased,” he said.

Even after 67 years of the state’s unification, there is no conducive atmosphere for using Kannada as the official language, the chief minister lamented. “This situation needs to change. Karnataka Sambhrama will be celebrated for one year from November 1, 2023. It will help in creating awareness about Kannada among the people,” he said.”We Kannadigas are generous people as we learn other languages, instead of teaching Kannada to speakers of other languages. This attitude has done more harm to Kannada than good,” he pointed out.

May be an image of 1 person

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *