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.
