BENGALURU: Condemning the Kerala government’s proposed Malayalam Language Bill 2025 that seeks to make Malayalam compulsory as the first language in Kannada medium schools in Kerala, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the move was an attack on the linguistic freedom guaranteed by the Constitution.
Siddaramaiah urged his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan to immediately withdraw the Bill that was passed by the Kerala Assembly recently.
Siddaramaiah said although Kasaragod is administratively a part of Kerala, emotionally it belongs to Karnataka. “The people there are connected with the Kannada language, culture, and literature. They are no less Kannadigas than the Kannadigas of Karnataka” Siddaramaiah said.
Further, he said hat for linguistic minorities, mother tongue is not merely a language, but an identity. “Children learn faster in their mother tongue. People of Kasaragod have been studying in Kannada medium for several generations. More than 70% of people prefer to learn Kannada,” he said. Further, Siddaramaiah said that the Constitution lays down provisions for the protection of minorities, including language.
Articles 29 and 30 grant people living in any part of the country the right to protect their language, script, and culture, and also the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice, he added.
He said just as we protect and nurture the Kannada language in Karnataka, the Kerala government has complete freedom to promote and preserve Malayalam. “However, imposing one language over another is unacceptable,” he said. The CM also warned that if the Kerala government proceeds with implementing the Bill, Kannadigas will oppose it unanimously.