Hindi Diwas row: Call for celebration of all languages

BENGALURU: Political party leaders, Kannada organisations and netizens have opposed observing ‘Hindi Diwas’ on Monday in non-Hindi speaking states. Former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy demanded that the Union government stop observing Hindi Diwas. “If at all it has to be celebrated, why only just Hindi. All languages, including Kannada, must be celebrated across the country,” he said.

The JDS leader termed the celebration as “linguistic arrogance” as the constitution does not recognise Hindi or any one language as ‘national language’. There are many  attempts to portray Hindi as the national language and such attempts have now reached their limits, he said and added that people will agitate against this and this imposition has to stop before it gets worse.

Meanwhile, many actors expressed opposition against “Hindi imposition”. Actor Dhananjay, flaunting a tee-shirt with a message in Kannada, tweeted, “We Kannadigas love all languages, but love Kannada. Do not impose Hindi.” Actors Prakash Raj and Chethan tweeted similar messages. Members of Kannada organisations staged a protest near Anand Rao Flyover in Bengaluru. Netizens too expressed anger on various social media platforms.

activists vandalise railway station boards 
A group of 16 Kannada Rakshana Vedike activists, including four women, on Monday afternoon broke two metallic boards with Hindi letterings on them and dismantled them, while two other boards with Hindi words on the Station Road just outside the KSR (Bengaluru City) railway station were defaced with black spray paint. Two FIRs are set to be filed — one by the Government Railway Police and another by the Railway Protection Force. According to railway sources, the activists raising slogans came outside the station at 1.30 pm, and started vandalising. A good number of them stood taking videos, selfies and photos.