Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Saturday demanded to know which medium Chandrashekhar Patil’s grandchildren were studying in, while hitting back at the writer who on Friday demanded that the Chief Minister take an unambiguous stand on the issue of medium of instruction to ensure primacy to Kannada in schools.
The acrimonious debate over medium of instruction, which began at the inauguration of the 84th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in Dharwad on Friday, continued on Saturday.
Many writers, including Dr. Patil (better known by his pen name Champa), had expressed unhappiness over the State government’s decision to open English-medium classes in 1,000 government schools during the event’s inauguration.
Reacting strongly, the Chief Minister, speaking at Hubballi, asked Dr. Patil not to cross his “limits” while also asking if he was able to ensure his grandchildren studied in Kannada-medium schools.
On ‘coalition dharma’
Answering queries from presspersons, Mr. Kumaraswamy asked if Dr. Patil was involved in the negotiation during formation of the coalition government.
This was in response to the writer saying on Friday that it was part of the “coalition dharma” to protect Kannada schools, since the previous Siddaramaiah government had taken up this issue on priority.
The Chief Minister pointed out that the sammelana president Chandrashekhar Kambar had mentioned in his speech that nearly 13 lakh students had dropped out of government schools and 15 lakh students had joined private English-medium schools.
“I have already said that I’m open to discussion. Let us then close down all English-medium schools. Let the Sahitya Parishat pass a resolution to this effect,” he challenged, visibly irritated.
