Kannada ‘missing’ on foundation stone plaque: RTI response says only bilingual policy applicable in Central govt offices

Shivamogga: The Ministry of Home Affairs, while responding to an RTI application that sought to know why Kannada did not find a place on the foundation stone plaque of the RAF unit in Bhadravathi, inaugurated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on January 16, clarified that only the bilingual policy – Hindi and English – is applicable in Central government offices.

It may be recalled that the opposition had hit out at Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and his Deputy Govind Karjol for ignoring the local language and sought to know why the three-language policy was not followed in the foundation stone plaque. The foundation stone had information only in Hindi and English.

An RTI application had been filed by a Goutham Ganesh MH in this regard.

The MHA’s response to the RTI, shared by Goutham on Twitter mentions: “As per the provision of the Official Language Act, 1963 and Official Language Rules, 1976, the provision of the bilingual policy is applicable in the office of Centre government. Since CRPF comes under the administrative control of Central Govt, i.e. MHA, hence, questions of applicability of three languages policy does not arise (sic).”

Twitter users slammed the response with one user remarking that the three-language policy is part of a parliamentary resolution to covertly force non-Hindi people to learn Hindi in schools.