Hindi signs to be removed from metro: K’taka CM
Karnataka CM Siddarmaiah on Thursday informed the minister for housing and urban affairs Narendra Singh Tomar that Hindi will be dropped from metro signboards at Namma Metro rail stations here and that the Centre must respect the “cultural aspirations and sentiments of the people of the state”..
In a letter written on Friday, he said, “An issue has arisen out of the usage of Hindi in metro station signages. Government’s chief secretary had written to the ministry of urban development that the metro project must follow the Karnataka Official Language Policy, according to which only Kannada and English should be used.”
The controversy raged on after pro-Kannada activists defaced Hindi signages on two occasions this month.
Siddaramaiah argues that despite both the central and state government holding equal equity stake in the project, “the financial contribution of the state government is much more than the Government of India”. He says the supervision of operations and provision of security lies with the state.
“Therefore, it would be appropriate that the policies of the state government are implemented in the project,” the letter says. Siddarmaiah adds that with the completion of the first phase of the metro rail project, and the increase in number of commuters using it, the “mild protests” that took place in the past have “begun to take a violent turn”.
Citing the widespread protests that have taken place, with many litterateurs from the state lending their voice for the removal of Hindi from signboards, Siddarmaiah says it is counter-productive to continue to insist on the use of three languages, including Hindi.
The letter goes on to argue that even in terms of practicality it would be better to use those languages that locals can read. And in this regard, as commuters are comfortable with using Kannada and English, he says, Hindi is not essential.
Therefore, Siddarmaiah says, “The state government is compelled to ask the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation to temporarily redesign the signboards in metro stations, without using Hindi language/script”.
With all the controversy it attracted, nearly everyone knows what Madhur Bhandarkar’s Indu Sarkar is about — a political drama set against the backdrop of the Emergency.
The film opens in a fictitious village called Mubipura on the NCR-Haryana border. People are readying for a wedding when the cops suddenly arrive looking for men to round up and sterilise, as ordered by the now all-powerful government. When the men try to hide, the cops hunt them down and drag them away, even a 70-year-old and a boy of 13.