BENGALURU: Former chief minister Siddaramaiah slammed the state BJP government for using Hindi on the official website of Kannada and Culture Department. Soon after his criticism, the department quickly made changes on the website.
“Is it the Department of Kannada and Culture in the state or Department of Hindi and Culture,” he questioned on social media. He had tagged a screenshot of the department’s homepage that had ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’, ‘Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav’ and ‘Bharat Sarkar Sanskriti Mantralaya (Ministry of Culture, Government of India)’, in Hindi.
He accused the state government of imposing Hindi and insulting Kannada to appease the BJP Central leaders. He said the banner at the programme in Bengaluru that was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah was completely in Hindi.
He urged the Kannada and Culture Department to remove Hindi from its official website and said, “Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Kannada and Culture Minister Sunil Kumar should clarify that”. He said if Sunil Kumar decides to use the department’s website to campaign for Hindi, who will save Kannada.
While the department removed Hindi from its website, some netizens slammed Congress for ignoring Kannada in the banner at the meeting attended by former AICC president Rahul Gandhi in Hubballi on Tuesday.