Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has asked his Kerala counterpart to withdraw a proposed legislation, days after Pinarayi Vijayan had criticised a demolition drive in Bengaluru and was told not to meddle in another state’s affairs.
Siddaramaiah’s letter to Pinarayi on Friday objects to the Malayalam Language Bill, which makes Malayalam the mandatory first language even in Kannada-medium schools, saying it would affect Kannadigas in Kerala’s border districts, particularly Kasaragod.
Pinarayi, a CPM leader, had in a Facebook post on December 26 castigated the demolition of 200 houses at Fakir Colony and Waseem Layout at Yelahanka, north Bengaluru, likening the "anti-minority” move to the "North Indian model of a bulldozer raj".
While Siddaramaiah did not respond, his deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar advised Pinarayi not to interfere in the affairs of the Congress-ruled state.
Assembly polls are due in about three months in Kerala, where the Left and the Congress will be the principal adversaries despite being allies at the national level.
The two chief ministers had shared a stage at the Sivagiri annual pilgrimage at Varkala, Thiruvananthapuram, in December-end, creating an impression that any ill-feeling over the Facebook post had been buried. But just over a week later comes Siddaramaiah’s missive.
The letter expresses fear that Kerala’s language bill will hurt the longstanding harmony among different linguistic groups in Karnataka’s border districts. Siddaramaiah says he is writing the letter in the spirit of "mutual respect, shared constitutional responsibility and cooperative federalism".
"Karnataka takes immense pride in Kannada, a language shaped by social reform, equality and inclusive thought. We have always upheld the principles that promotion of one’s language must never become an imposition on another," the letter says.
It warns that if the bill is passed, Karnataka will oppose it by exercising all the constitutional rights that protect linguistic minorities and the pluralist spirit of the Indian republic.
"This position flows not from confrontation, but from our duty to the Constitution and to the people whose voices must never be marginalised," the letter says.
"I remain hopeful that wisdom, dialogue and constitutional values will guide us towards a resolution that allows every language to flourish freely." Pinarayi is yet to reply to Siddaramaiah’s letter.