Kannada medium can herald an egalitarian society: Writer

Closure of Kannada schools worries Sahitya Sammelana president

An egalitarian society is possible only when primary education is nationalised and the medium of instruction is Kannada in the State, writer Siddalingaiah said on Sunday.

He was delivering the inaugural address at the 81st all India Kannada Sahitya Sammelana here.

Lauding the language policy of the State government, he said that it should put forth its argument strongly on the issue of Kannada as the compulsory medium of instruction before the Supreme Court. Six and a half crore Kannadigas were with the chief minister in this regard, he said.

Siddalingaiah regretted the fact that the number of private unaided schools that mushroomed in the State in the last one year was three times the number of government schools that were closed in the same period. While Kannadigas settled in Dubai had opened Kannada schools for their children there, the Kannada schools back home are being closed, he regretted.

The writer rued the fact that some officers in the State gave priority for English, but did not bother to improve their Kannada. He said that the ministers should return files that are not in Kannada. Siddalingaiah demanded that the government should work towards promoting Kannada in Bengaluru, where use of the language is on the decline.

He called for the implementation of the Nanjundappa committee report on addressing regional imbalances to silence those demanding separate statehood for their regions. Splitting the State would be detrimental for the interests of Kannadigas, the writer said.

Siddalingaiah said that there were blind beliefs in every religion and that they diminish human dignity. He called for the passing of a law against such superstitions.

The other issues that the conference president touched upon included the demand for a separate language policy based on the RTE Act and ending the injustice meted out to Kannadigas in the Railways. The writer hoped that a day would come when children of all castes sat in the same row and ate the mid-day meals prepared in their schools by a dalit woman.

Siddalingaiah demanded that one day in the week should be declared Kannada day in all government offices and educational institutions, in the centenary year of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat. Only Kannada should be the language of communication on the Kannada day, he said.