BENGALURU: At the 64th Karnataka Rajyotsava celebrations at Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa urged everyone in the state to learn Kannada.“We don’t want a craze for English. Kannada has the potential to grow. There will be no compromise on the issues of development, good governance and priority when it comes to Kannadigas. The language has a 2,000-year-old legacy and we have won eight Jnanpith awards,” he told the gathering.
He said several great people have contributed to the unification of Karnataka, and the language should become part of our daily life. Meanwhile, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Suresh Kumar said that the cabinet has decided to give a second set of uniforms to government school children.
“The Karnataka Sahitya Parishat is digitising the Kannada dictionary and the government has implemented e-governance in the state, which has been helpful to crores of people,” Kumar said.
The event was celebrated with much pomp, with nearly 7,000 children performing dance, yoga and drill. Yakshagana, Bharatanatyam and classical dances were also performed.“We practiced for 20 days with 510 children from South Bengaluru. High school and middle school children were trained in Bharatanatayam, Yakshagana and other classical forms. The Kannada goddess on a lamp being pulled is symbolic of Goddess Maheshwari,” Mahesh Kumar, the choreographer, told The New Indian Express.
Other performances included a dance-drama of the battle between Madakari Nayaka and Hyder Ali, posters of Kannada personalities such as Kuvempu, Bendre, Girish Karnad, Kambara, Akka Mahadevi and others.Twenty children performed back-bending yoga poses on the stadium track, trained by Mansoor Pasha, a yoga instructor.
“The children were from private and government schools and have been learning yoga for several years. We prepared for the Rajyotsava programme in just three days, with the remaining children performing drill at the back, which took 15 days of practice,” said Pasha, adding that the children had performed yoga in Europe and Malaysia recently.
Many Kannadigas have achieved big in various fields even on an international level. We should keep reaching new heights and only that can give the language and state an identity
N Kumar, former HC Judge
The Karnataka Sahitya Parishat is digitising the Kannada dictionary and the government has implemented e-governance in the state, which has been helpful to crores of peopleSuresh Kumar, minister
Kannada has the potential to grow. There will be no compromise on the issues of development, good governance and priority when it comes to Kannadigas. BS Yediyurappa, Chief Minister