Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday endorsed actor Sudeep’s statement on the primacy of Kannada and said that everyone should understand and respect his views. His Cabinet colleague and Large and Medium Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani, meanwhile, described Hindi as a “national language” but went on to add that first priority is for Kannada.
Hindi actor Ajay Devgn and Kannada actor Sudeep on Wednesday were embroiled in a Twitter war over language issue after the latter said that Hindi was “no longer a national language” in the context of the success of several southern films in Hindi. Devgn responded to this with a tweet in Hindi saying Hindi “was, is and will be” the national language, setting off a debate.
Backing Sudeep, the Chief Minister said regional language was most important as the States were divided on linguistic basis.
Speaking to reports in Hubballi, the Chief Minister said, “The States of India were formed on the basis of language. In each State, the regional language, that is the mother tongue of the people, enjoys primacy. That is why actor Sudeep’s statement on the primacy of Kannada is right. Everyone should understand and respect his views.”
Meanwhile, speaking to mediapersons in Mysuru on Thursday, Mr. Nirani described Hindi as a national language but was quick to add that first priority is for Kannada.
When pressed further, the Minister said ‘’Kannada is our mother tongue and one has to compulsorily learn it but we also need Hindi and there was nothing wrong in learning other languages as well. The more languages we learn the more we enrich ourselves. For international communication we also need English’’, said the Minister.
Thursday saw former Chief Ministers Siddaramaiah and H.D. Kumaraswamy strongly objecting to Ajay Devgn’s remarks on Hindi and Kannada and supported Sudeep. Many people from the Kannada film industry and outside in Karnataka had expressed support to him on Twitter.
