Ahead of Assembly polls it has become necessary to make use of all opportunities to turn the tide in favour. For Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah the Assembly polls have become crucial as he has to keep the power to keep the century old party its national identity. The CM is making all efforts to appeal to the masses to reach them ahead of elections.
After advocating a separate flag for the State which became a major political row, now he is asking people who are living in the State must learn Kannada, the language which is an emotional issue. Siddaramaiah said in a function to celebrate 62nd Kannada Rajyothsava, the State’s founding day in Bengaluru on Wednesday that the people live in the State must learn Kannada.
He said “Everyone who lives here is a Kannadiga. Whoever lives in Karnataka should learn Kannada and make their children learn it too. Not learning Kannada is a disrespect to this land. He has asked the parents to teach Kannada to their children which is crucial. "I am not against any language but learning Kannada here is a must," he said.
He also envisaged that every school in the State must teach Kannada, ruing what he called a trend "to make students leave Government schools and make them join english medium schools.
Siddaramaiah wants a reply for his letters which he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to make mother tongue compulsory. He said “I have written two letters to the Prime Minister. But, there was no response. I love Kannada, but won't disrespect other languages."
The political tone in his appeal to learn Kannada by the people living in Karnataka has a political overtures. Siddaramaiah had recently supported the move by the Kannada activists demanding only two languages in the Metro, Kannada and English boards to be used.
With his support, the Kannada development Authority has asked the Bank officers to use only Kannada and asked them to learn Kannada in six months.
In another development ahead of elections, major political parties are using social media and online initiatives to lure the young tech savvy voters. Siddaramaiah is no exception to this trend. He has released an app to connect with the people. He said “This app will help people connect directly with the Chief Minister.” The citizen connect app is expected to directly connect to Chief Minister which is crucial for the poll prospects.
The newly launched app will contain information on the Chief Minister’s speeches, videos, Government programmes and updates, feedback on various State projects and their progress.
Siddaramaiah also launched a GPS (global positioning system) — embedded farmer crop survey mobile app to provide information on crop sowing and other information of interest to farmers.
“The intention of creating this app is to help in effective planning and implementation of schemes and programmes, while providing a venue for the Chief Minister to directly interact with the people and encourage their active involvement and participation in the process of governance,” the State Government said in a statement. Siddaramaiah also has a twitter handler to connect with the urban youth and facebook page.