A day after the five-judge constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court passed verdict on mother tongue — which says choosing medium of instruction is the fundamental right of the parents — Karnataka Government is looking for legal options to challenge the order.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who considers the verdict a setback, said, “The State Government will review SC order, that strikes down the usage of Kannada as a mandatory medium of instruction in primary schools in the State, before deciding on its future course of action.”
Karnataka Primary Education Minister Kimmane Ratnakar said, “The order is detrimental from the perspective of the growth of regional languages. local languages will become extinct if this order comes into force. The verdict, however, does not signal the end of the battle to give Kannada its rightful status.” He added that the Government would hold discussions with Kannada literary figures and legal experts before deciding on the next course of legal action on the issue.
Karnataka Governor HR Bhardwaj feels the SC ruling will not have any adverse impact on the language as “regional languages will not be sidelined by the court order. There will be no ill effect on the development of Indian languages.”
Meanwhile, the verdict was received with shock and disappointment by the literary world and pro-Kannada organisations. The Government has called for a meeting of writers and social activists to prepare ground for future action.
Many Kannada writers felt the judgement was detrimental to the development of the Kannada language. Reacting to the SC verdict, renowned writer and Jnanpith awardee UR Ananthamurthy said, “Making a child take up subjects and grasp them in a language he doesn’t know is to punish him. The court is actually recommending learning by rote. The best language for learning is the language of the environment,” he said.