Kannada Speaking People Unite Against Ajay Devgn's 'Hindi National Language Tweet'
Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn has become the latest celebrity to demonstrate his lack of general knowledge about our country after he tweeted claiming that Hindi was India's national language.
It all began when Kannada actor Kichcha Sudeepa stated during an event that "Hindi is no more a national language."
What Ajay Devgn said
Following this, Devgn took to his Twitter handle and expressed his views on Sudeepa's comment.
"Kiccha Sudeep, my brother, according to you, if Hindi is not our national language then why do you release your mother tongue films by dubbing them in Hindi? Hindi was, is and always will be our mother tongue and national language. Jan Gan Man," he wrote in Hindi.
Sudeep replies that the context in which he made the statement was different from the way it was perceived and that it was not intended to provoke, hurt or start a debate.
While the two actors ended their debate on a friendly note, the fire they ignited had spread by then.
Two former Karnataka CMs hit back
Two former Karnataka chief ministers Siddaramaiah and HD Kumaraswamy hit out at Devgn and insisted that Hindi is like any other language in India and not the national language.
"Hindi was never & will never be our National Language. It is the duty of every Indian to respect linguistic diversity of our country. Each language has its own rich history for its people to be proud of. I am proud to be a Kannadiga!!Ħħ Siddaramaiah tweeted.
"Actor @KicchaSudeep saying that Hindi is not a National Language is correct. There is nothing to find fault in his statement. Actor @ajaydevgn is not only hyper in nature but also shows his ludicrous behaviour,Ħħ Kumaraswamy said in a Tweet.
According to him, Hindi is also one of the languages like Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Marathi.
"India is a garden of several languages. Land of multi cultures. Let there be no attempts to disrupt this," he added in his series of tweets.
Just because a large population speaks Hindi, it doesn't become a national language, Kumaraswamy said adding, that less than nine states, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, have Hindi as a second or third language or not even.
Not new in Karnataka
The pushback against Hindi in Karnataka is not surprising as the state has a long history of it.
Earlier this month, when Union Home Minister Amit Shah suggested that people of different states should communicate with each other in Hindi, and not English, leaders from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were the first to oppose it and accuse him of Hindi imposition.
For Karnataka, Kannada comes first
Kannada organizations have regularly protested against what they see as 'migrants imposing their language on locals'.
The battle had taken an ugly turn in 2017 in Bengaluru after Kannada outfits defaced Hindi signboards on metro stations.
Karnataka, along with Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are the few states where the local language is mandatory on signboards of all commercial establishments.
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