BENGALURU: Angered by the ‘imposition’ of Hindi on Metro signboards, tweeple from the state trended #NammaMetroHindiBeda, on Tuesday. The trend was due to a social media campaign by Banavasi Balaga Prakashana, organised against the ‘unnecessary use of Hindi language’ in Namma Metro.
The hashtag had earlier trended two years ago.
The social media campaign which started around 6pm garnered a few thousand tweets by 8pm. A majority of the tweets criticised the decision to use Hindi in Bengaluru Metro as it is not the local language. Photos of metros in different parts of the world and country, where only two languages are used in signboards, were shared.
The campaign
According to a post in Banavasi Balaga Prakashana’s Facebook wall, the Twitter campaign was “to raise voices against the imposition of Hindi and demanding uniform language policy”.
“If Namma Metro has to remain our own, imposition of Hindi should stop there...,” the post read and demanded the state and Metro officials to uphold the “sovereignty of Kannada.”
Babu Ajay@Babuajay316
Madrid metro has only 2 languages, Chennai, Delhi metro has only 2 langs, wonder why 3 langs in BLR metro. #nammametro hindibeda
Hariprasad Holla
@hariprasadholla
Hindi use because Union Govt funds? Kannada must be every corner of India for being one of the highest tax payer #NammaMetroHindiBeda
Ramachandra M @nanuramu
Without any legal obligation, Hindi being included in namma Metro is a depiction of Hindi hegemony in India #NammaMetroHindiBeda