Karnataka Kannada and Culture Minister C T Ravi on Thursday said the BJP-led Government at the Centre has no plans to impose Hindi, as he asserted that Kannada is supreme in the State.
"Central Government is not imposing Hindi and it won’t do it also. Our party’s principle is that importanceshould be given to regional languages," Ravi said to reporters here, he said, "Kannada has its own ability and in Karnataka Kannada is supreme... Link language is different matter and it was left for people to decide whether one needs to learn it or not."
Union Home Minister Amit Shah last month pitched for Hindi as a common language for the country, which had reignited the debate on the issue, and drew flak from various organisations and political parties in the southern states.
Seeking to defend Shah’s statement, Ravi said it was an opinion that Hindi can be a link language in the country, as "we have accepted English as the link language internationally". It had nothing to do with imposition.
"This opinion is not new as several leaders in the past like Nehru and Indira Gandhi have advocated this. It is not a matter of politics," he said, noting that a good per cent of people in the country naturally speak Hindi. Following the controversy over Shah’s statement, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa too hadrecently asserted that Kannada is the principal language in the state and its importance will never be compromised.
Ravi said, eleven years after Kannada got classical language status, steps were now being initiated towards formally initiating activities including setting up of Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Kannada, currently functioning at a quarters in Mysuru, and blamed inaction on part of successive governments for it.