Karnataka CM orders removal of Hindi from Bangalore Metro signboards

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said that Banglaore’s “Namma Metro” would just use two languages on signboards for the time being, Kannada and English, in the face of boiling protests over the use of Hindi.

“The state government is compelled to ask the BMRCL to temporarily re-design the signages/name boards in Metro Stations, without using Hindi Language/script,” Siddaramaiah wrote in a letter to Union Urban Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.

The CM also urged Centre to review the use of three-language policy on the metro, saying that “cultural aspirations and sentiments of the people of Karnataka” needed to be respected.

“Apart from the Cultural need to give primacy to the language of the State, it is also practical to use those languages which local people can read and follow. It is not essential to use Hindi in signages as the commuters who use the metro are comfortable with reading and understanding Kannada and/or English. Therefore, the State Government is compelled to ask the BMRCL to temporarily re-design the signages/name boards in Metro Stations, without using Hindi Language/script,” the letter stated.

Stating that the state government was incharge of security on the Metro system, Siddaramaiah reasoned that the signages in the metro station should follow the State’s Official Language Policy which permitted the use of only Kannada and English.

The letter comes in the wake of raging protests by pro-Kannada groups across the city, which have involved blackening of Hindi names on metro signboards and demonstrations at the office of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL).

“Presently, it (protests) has begun to take a violent turn with activists trying to deface the Metro name boards/signages,” the CM noted.

Siddaramaiah informed that authorities were trying their best to maintain law and order at metro stations.

“… you would agree that in the face of a continued agitation and demands from literatures and intellectuals of the City for giving primacy to the languages of the State and languages with which people of the City and the commuters are familiar, it is counter-productive to continue to insist on use of three languages including Hindi,” the letter added.

“I would like to submit here that the stand of Government of India of using the three language formula is not reasonable,” Siddaramaiah said.

The CM stated that it was better to follow a persuasive approach rather than a mandatory one over the use of Hindi on Bangalore Metro.