Karnataka seethes over Kamal Haasan’s remarks on Kannada, demands apology

Language issues have been on the top of the emotional charts in Karnataka, with any and every element relating to it occupying the mind space of activists and people alike. After Hindi-speaking migrants causing strain to Kannada-speaking people with their utterances and actions, it is the turn of Tamil film superstar Kamal Haasan, who riled Karnataka with his controversial remarks on the language.

The superstar’s statement that Tamil gave birth to Kannada has ignited social media with people from Karnataka, and even the BJP Karnataka unit, demanding an apology from the actor who is a prominent member of the INDIA coalition in Tamil Nadu. A video of him saying the Kannada language comes from Tamil language at his ‘Thug Life’ promotion event in Chennai has gone viral on social media.

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A X user, Vijayendra, said, “One should love one’s mother tongue, but showing disrespect in its name is uncultured behavior. Especially artists should have the culture of respecting every language. It is the height of arrogance that an actor who has acted in many Indian languages, including Kannada, has insulted Kannada by including actor Shivaraj Kumar in the same vein of glorifying his Tamil language.”

“Kannada has been a landmark in many parts of the world, including India, for centuries. The fact that Kannada is the most recognized language in the world should be known to narrow-minded people like Kamal Haasan,” the user said.

Echoing similar sentiments, BJP’s Karnataka unit president BY Vijayendra said, “Kamal Haasan is not a historian to define which language originated from which language. But the Kannada language, which has a history of more than two and a half thousand years, symbolizes prosperity on the map of India and represents harmony.