Don't waste taxpayers money: Kumaraswamy urges Karnataka govt to not celebrate ‘Hindi Diwas’

Bengaluru, Sep 12: JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Monday urged Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai not to celebrate 'Hindi Diwas' by utilising the taxpayers' money.

In a letter to Bommai, the former Chief Minister said that forcefully celebrating Hindi Diwas, which happens to be on September 14, would amount to "injustice" to the people of Karnataka.

"Celebrating the Union government-sponsored Hindi Diwas programme on September 14, forcefully in Karnataka, will be an injustice to Kannadigas by the State government. I urge that for no reason Karnataka government should celebrate Hindi Diwas by utilising the State's taxpayers' money," Kumaraswamy said in his letter.

Noting that thousands of languages and dialects, over 560 princely States, and diverse social and cultural practices make India a "great union", he said, "In such a land, celebrating one particular language is injustice..."

Earlier, Kumaraswamy had opposed the Hindi Diwas celebrations, stating that it holds no meaning for those whose mother tongue is not Hindi, and demanded it be scrapped.

There was a large-scale social media outrage, also protests by pro-Kannada organisations to Hindi Diwas last year, calling it "imposition of Hindi".

Hindi Divas is observed all over the country on September 14. It was on this day in 1949 when the Constitution-makers of the country decided to accord the status of Official Language of the Union to Hindi.

Hindi is spoken by over 400 million people as first language while 120 million use Hindi as second language.