Imposition of Hindi is not correct, says Kumaraswamy

BENGALURU: Former chief minister and Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy on Saturday observed that a day is not far away when the people of the state reject both the national parties — the BJP and the Congress.

“Already doors have been shut for two national parties in south India,” said Kumaraswamy and termed both the BJP and the Congress as “two sides of the same coin.” He opined that both the Congress and the BJP are detrimental to the interests of the country.

Kumaraswamy was reacting to the Congress party's Bharat Jodo Yatra  and the BJP's "Janasankalapa Yatra" in the state.

He asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to advise Union home minister Amit Shah to desist from imposing Hindi on other states, and warned that if any steps are taken against Kannada, then he would be forced to join hands with pro-Kannada organisations to stage protests.

Instead of imposing Hindi, Kumaraswamy wanted the Centre to focus on the alleviation of poverty in the country, which stood at 104th out of 120 countries in hunger index.

Already, he said, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has staged a protest over Hindi imposition and protests have started in the states of West Bengal, Kerala and among others.

He said the Union government’s “One Nation One Language” policy is detrimental to the interests of regional languages, and questioned “how can one build a strong nation by destroying regional languages?”