THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Spending sixty years in the state has done little to make Kerala’s Kannada and Tamil speaking population feel at home. Now, the linguistic minority, scattered around five districts, have decided to knock the doors of the Chief Minister on the state’s formation day to voice their angst by meeting him and staging a dharna near the Secretariat.
“We suffer in getting government jobs or accessing government offices. We are at the mercy of translators when corresponding with government. Moreover, Kannada-speaking youth here are excluded from jobs requiring knowledge of Kannada,” says K M Ballakuraya, President of Kasaragod-based Karnataka Samiti and special invitee to the state-level Linguistic Minority Committee (LMC).
The Kannada-speaking population of Kasargod - which was integrated in Kannur district following Kerala’s formation on November 1, 1956 - is affected by the problem.
The officer-level PSC test was discontinued in Kasaragod after linguistic minorities protested the use of Malayalam in question papers. The linguistic minority suffered most when Malayalam was adopted as the state’s official language of administration and official communication.
“Officials are insensitive to our grievances. Even courts now ask for documents translated in Malayalam, instead of documents in Kannada,” he adds. Tamil linguistic minorities in Palakkad, Kollam, Idukki and Thiruvananthapuram echo similar sentiments.