Karnataka will protest against Centre on imposition of Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states, said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
While talking about the mounting protests against “imposition” of Hindi in Bengaluru, he said, “The Karnataka government will not tolerate imposition of Hindi. Hindi is being used in Metro rail citing the three-language formula. Metro is not a central government project. The major funding is by the state government.”
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“Just because Hindi is spoken in several north Indian states, it should not be seen as a language which is spoken across the country,” he said. He also criticized Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu’s recent remark that everyone in the country should learn Hindi. “This is not acceptable,” he added.
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“Hindi as Rashtra Bhasha (national language) is very important, we cannot do without it…Most people in our country speak Hindi, so learning Hindi is also important… but we should be fluent in our mother language like Gujarati, Marathi, Bhojpuri…,” Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu had said on Saturday.
