[lg policy] This is Karnataka, continued:

[Harold Schiffman]

After defacing Hindi signs at metro stations across Bengaluru, the
Karnataka Rakshana Vedike is now under taking a drive to tear down flex
banners with non-Kannada texts.

On Thursday morning, several members of the Praveen Shetty faction of KVR
carried out a protest on Tannery Road in Bengaluru. The members of this
Kannada outfit marched up to the flex banner of BBMP Corporator Elamalai
and tore the parts of the banner containing text in Tamil.

The members also demanded that Elamalai resign from his position in the
BBMP Council.

Speaking to TNM, Praveen Shetty, the President of KVR said that despite
several “warnings given by the Vedike”, many people were not adhering to
the usage of Kannada in sign boards and banners.

“This is Karnataka and besides, he is a BBMP Corporator. Why can’t he put
up banners with Kannada text? It is because of such things that people stop
speaking in Kannada. The Makara Sankranti flex banners were in Tamil. This
is unacceptable, so we defaced the banners. Look at people in that area,
they only speak Tamil now and not Kannada. This is Karnataka and people
should learn Kannada,” Praveen Shetty said.

Over the past two days, members of the outfit have gone around several
areas in the city and torn down flex banners which contained text in any
language other than Kannada or English.

“In KR Market, Dandupradesha and Shivajinagar, the members of our
organization have been removing banners printed in Urdu and Tamil. In
Karnataka, we will accept only Kannada language banners,” Shetty added.

Despite several attempts by TNM, the corporator was unavailable for comment.

In July last year, the members of the outfit had defaced Hindi signs in
metro stations across the city. The activists of the Vedike had demanded
that the three-language policy be removed and that the state government
implement a two-language policy of Kannada and English only.

Subsequently, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had written to the Centre, asking
it to order Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) to take down
the Hindi language sign boards.

In August 2017, BMRCL agreed to take down the Hindi signs. Subsequently, in
November the same year, Bengaluru Development Minister KJ George had
allotted a one-month deadline for establishments to have Kannada sign
boards. However, the members of the Vedike are still upset that despite the
promise, BMRCL still has Hindi signages.


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=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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