Translations gone wrong
The Congress government may be keen to be seen as a devoted guardian of Kannada, but those entrusted with the task of managing a sarkari programme recently made mockery of it.
Journalists who went to cover the launch of the ambitious Vision 2025 project rubbed their eyes in disbelief when the bold, bilingual signage showing their row of seats read “press” in English and “ otti ” in Kannada.
It took the scribes a while to deduce that perhaps the person in charge of the signage did not know Kannada and must have trusted the Google translator. Google had simply offered a verb, otti , as the equivalent of ‘press’.
The news handout given at the event was full of many such gaffes. For instance, “exercise” was translated as “ vyayama ” (physical exercise), which made no sense in the context.
One only hopes that the avowedly Kannada-loving government has firmly given those who handled these tasks a lesson or two — in a language that went home.
Rai’s jibe at Sulibele backfires
Forest Minister B. Ramanath Rai ( in picture ) often extols the high professional values that his party and he uphold, but he seemed to have given them the go-by recently. A video of his speech carrying a particular abuse has now gone viral.
At a party convention at Assaigol near Mangaluru, Mr. Rai was reacting to Chakravarty Sulibele, the Yuva Brigade leader, who often criticises Congress and its dynastic politics. Mr. Rai declared that those who criticised India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, were as good as traitors. The country owed its Independence, he said, to the struggles of the likes of Nehru and not Mr. Sulibele. The Minister further went on to play on Mr. Sulibele’s name with a derogatory word in Tulu. He also prompted the audience to repeat it in chorus. Ever since the video surfaced, the Minister has not been seen at public events in the district nor has he clarified on the issue.
Meanwhile, BJP minority morcha leader Rahim Uchil has lodged a complaint of defamation against Mr. Rai and said that his utterance has hurt Mr. Sulibele and is likely to cause disturbance in society.
The elusive ZP post
There is many a slip between the cup and the lip as Bharati Reddy, who was briefly president of the Ballari Zilla Panchayat, has found out. In the election to the post reserved for OBC (B) women, the BJP member won against the Congress candidate early last year. The latter then complained to the Returning Officer that Ms. Reddy’s caste and income certificate had concealed the income of her husband, who is a class-1 contractor. The objection was overruled and Ms. Reddy took charge in April 2016.
Soon, a few district voters challenged her election in the Dharwad Bench of the High Court of Karnataka. The single judge dismissed their writ petition. The petitioners appealed before a Division Bench, after which the court set aside the order of the single judge. Ms. Reddy took the matter to Supreme Court, which directed the single judge to clear the case in four weeks.
The single judge quashed the notification for election of president and called for verification and inquiry into the matter. Ms. Reddy, who was told not to perform duties as an elected president while the case was on, had to step down again.
Now, all eyes here are on the report of the inquiry committee.
Bageshree S.
Anil Kumar Sastry
M. Ahiraj
