Hundreds of Kannada linguistic minorities picketed the Collectorate on Tuesday in protest against the government’s decision to make Malayalam mandatory in schools from the coming academic year. The functioning of the Collectorate was hit following the protest.
Nearly 10,000 protesters, including Kannada medium teachers, women, and children, blockaded the eight gates to the premises as early as 5 a.m., preventing employees from entering the offices. The protest had the support of various parties, barring the Left Democratic Front.
The functioning of the district panchayat and other offices in the Collectorate remained paralysed throughout the day as the protesters blocked the entry points till 3.30 p.m.
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The picketing was inaugurated by Uppala Kondeyoor Math chief Yogananda Saraswathi Swami, Fr. Vincent D’ Souza of the Bela church, and Moulana Abdul Azeez, Islamic scholar and head of a mosque at Bandiyode, near Uppala.
Kannada Samanwaya Samithi president B. Purushotham said Kannada would lose its stature among linguistic minorities once the ordinance making Malayalam compulsory in all schools became law. There were over 4 lakh Kannada linguistic minorities in the district. The linguistic minority students would have to learn an additional language from Class I when others needed to study only three languages. The government, therefore, should make the requisite correction in the ordinance to allay the concerns of the linguistic minorities, he said, warning of a prolonged agitation. Indian Union Muslim League leader and district panchayat president A.G.C. Basheer, District Congress Committee president Hakeem Kunnil, BJP district president K. Sreekant, and Karnataka Samithi president K. Muralidhara Ballakkuraya, among others, addressed a public meeting organised in connection with the protest.