Anantkumar Hegde stokes new row, this time on Kannada
Puttur: Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Anantkumar Hegde said on Saturday created a controversy on Sunday, by claiming that barring people from Dakshina Kannada, Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada, others did not have the capacity to translate from English to pure Kannada.
The minister, who is not new to controversies, has caused embarrassment to his party, the BJP.
Speaking at a programme here, he said, “there are a few people who can translate English to pure Kannada. Barring people from Dakshina Kannada, Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada, others do not have capacity to translate to Kannada. The situation in Bengaluru is worse,” he said.
Translating from English to Kannada is a challenging task and technology is advancing. With just a certificate, one will not get any benefit. There is a need to create a “hidden army” through knowledge on cyber security, said the minister.
State BJP spokesperson S Suresh Kumar said the minister’s statement has hurt a section of the people and that he should withdraw it. “Kannada is spoken differently in different regions of the state. It is not proper on the minister’s part to make such a statement. I oppose it. I urge him to withdraw the statement,” he said.
He had recently said the Constitution would be changed, drawing criticism from all quarters.
In my opinion , the Minister has not said any thing serious on the way of speaking Kannada by the people of different districts of Karnataka. Yes the people of Uttara Kannada, Udupi and DK , Shimoga speak Kannada clearly which are almost like Text Book Kannada. Minister should have added Kodagu, Hassan districts also in this list. Mysuru is also eligible for this list. Barring these districts, Kannada spoken in other districts are having different slant. Kannada spoken in Belgaum and Dharwad, Haveri is affected by Marathi influence . In Bidar and Kalburgi Raichur it is affected by Urudu… Read more »