Mysuru: Late Union Minister Ananth Kumar’s love for Kannada was such that he insisted on being sworn in all six times as Member of Parliament in the language and signed all important documents, including his passport in Kannada.
While representing India at the UN General Assembly at New York , USA, in 2012, he greeted it in Kannada saying, “Sanmaanya Adhyakshare maththu vishwada nanna preethiya sahodara sahodariyare. Nimmellarigu nanna munjaavina shubhaashayagalu” (Honourable president and brothers and sisters from all over the world good morning to all of you).
At one of his last public programmes, the inauguration of a Rs 16 crore worth building of the Kendriya Vidyalaya in Chamarajanagar on August 13, he told the audience he had studied in Kannada medium at a Railway school and was the only one in his class to pass SSLC. He said it was important to teach regional languages, like Kannada at the Kendriya Vidyalayas and promised to discuss the matter with HRD Minister Prakash Javedekar.
At the valedictory of the Kannada Sahithya Sammelana in Mysuru on November 26 last year, he admitted that his love for Kannada had always been an integral part of his identity. Regretting that the enrolment in Kannada schools was falling, he warned that the state’s culture, tradition and literature could not survive if there was a threat to the language. “ Digitisation of Kannada literature is necessary to conserve it," he had stressed.
Litterateurs like S L Byrappa and prof. K S Bhagwan seem well acquainted with his love for Kannada. “He was a good political leader, who didn’t publicise his good work,” said Mr Byrappa.
