Siddaramaiah sparks language row, says everyone who lives in Karnataka must learn Kannada

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah sparked controversy on Wednesday when he said that all those people who live in Karnataka must learn Kannada.

“Everyone who lives here is a Kannadiga… Whoever lives in Karnataka should learn Kannada and make their children learn it too,” DNA quoted Siddaramaiah as saying.

Even though the chief minister also said that he was not against learning any other language, he was quick to add: “But if you don’t learn Kannada, it means you’re showing disrespect to the language.”

“I’m not saying don’t learn any other language. I’m not against any language. Learn whichever language you want. But not learning Kannada is an insult to the Kannada land,” The News Minute quoted him as saying.

“Kannadigas are generous people. We love and respect other people. We support them. We should be generous in that way. We should have humanity. But when it comes to the Kannada language, it’s not necessary that we be so generous,” said the chief minister.

Siddaramaiah then asked the Kannadigas to be more affectionate towards the language and asked them to focus on the preservation of the language.