There is no question of the Centre imposing Hindi on non-Hindi speaking States, said Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar here on Monday.
He was speaking to presspersons on the sidelines of a programme organised by the Karnataka Engineers’ Federation to mark the 154th birth anniversary of Sir M. Visvesvaraya.
He said the Union government would abide by the constitutional provisions in according primacy to regional languages and under no circumstances would Hindi be imposed on non-Hindi speaking States.
To emphasise the Centre’s stand on regional language, he said: “When I had the privilege of speaking at the United Nations, I addressed the General Assembly in Kannada.”
StatehoodWhen his attention was drawn to the statement made by former BJP Minister and Hukkeri MLA Umesh Katti on separate Statehood for northern Karnataka, Mr. Ananth Kumar said: “Nobody should raise a demand of this kind. Unified Karnataka is the only solution to achieve progress and differences with regard to development of that region,” he said.
The Minister refused to react on the reported plan of the State government to “ban Sri Rama Sene”.
