Isn't Nina Nayak more tuned to Bengaluru than Siddaramaiah?

I have only one question to ask these politicians who're trying to impose Kannada as the medium of instruction in primary schools: How many of them send their children to Kannada medium schools? English as a language is the gateway to economic development. All these years, we've been trying to impose Kannada on the marginalized by making it the only medium of instruction in schools where they can afford to educate their children. But today, even a domestic help and labourer send their children to English medium schools. They know it helps them get better opportunities in life, and increases employability.

For the full text of the quote in the ToI, by Ms Nina Nayak, Former Chairperson of "Commission for Child Rights", and AAP candidate from South Bangalore constituency in the 2014 parliamentary elections, click here.

The subject has been discussed at length on PRAJA here, apart from other blogs too.

Now, here is a politician who openly says what she believes rather than going by what may be seen as "politically correct". Or, should I say that she understands Bengaluru well and believes her stance to be politically correct too, as compared to Sri Siddaramaiah, who after all was elected to the Assembly from the Varuna (rural) constituency, and is perhaps not in tune with the thinking of 'Bengalurinavaru'. His reaction to the Supreme Court ruling, and the chest thumping by the self-appointed Kannada 'protectors' thereof, stating that he will "send back the files if they aren't in Kannada in future" (for that report in the ToI, click here) is an indication of that, even as the vast majority of Bengalurinavaru, I am reasonably sure, think along the lines of Ms Nina Nayak.

This again raises the question of implementation of the provisions of the 74th amendment, whereby the city and its citizens can decide what is best suited to them, rather than decisions being imposed by people who are not direct stake-holders in the city. Discussions thereof on PRAJA may be accessed here.

Besides, the question of livelihood comes first, and, in that respect, I won't be surprised if even the people of Varuna constituency think along the lines of Nina Nayak. Once the question of livelihood is taken care of, culture flourishes (and, thereby the language), as clearly seen from the activities of the "Kannada koota's" all across the US, and other developed countries across the world, apart from those in Mumbai, and other major cities in the country too. And, how did they all reach the levels of affluence they enjoy today in order to be able to further these cultural activities? All because of their fluency in English. The likes of URA, Mukhyamantri Chandru, etc would do well to appreciate these basics.

Apart from all of this, if the CM is going to be insisting that all documentation be in Kannada alone, perhaps the citizens can start demanding that an official translation in English be provided alongwith, English too being an official language of the state, quite as Justice Hegde himself has endorsed here.

Muralidhar Rao

PS: I would like to stress that this is not part of any campaign against the use, or promotion of Kannada. I fully support all pursuits towards promotion of the language, and the local culture through it. And, not just Kannada, but even Tulu, Konkani, Coorgi (and even Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, and Hindi), these being the other mother tongues of sizable sections of Bangaloreans/ Kannadiga's. For more on that, please browse through this blog.