The Karnataka Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa looked clearly uncomfortable during a press meeting when a student accused him of not knowing Kannada.
The incident took place during the opening of a free online coaching course meant for students to prepare for medical and engineering exams like NEET, JEE, and comprehensively the KCET for over 25000 students. The event was recorded in a video that spread through social media with a focus on the dispute between the minister and the student.
In the video, Bangarappa is seen doing video conferencing with students, and during this interaction, one student asked whether Bangarappa knows Kannada well. Bangarappa quickly fired back at the students, saying that they were clearly mistaken in assuming that the education minister was unfamiliar with the language. Nonchalantly, defensively, he said, “What? Who said this? Am I speaking Urdu?” He then asked authorities to arrest the student, as he described the comment as provocative and stated that he was annoyed by the allegation.
“Kannada does not exist to me? Those who said this, let the cameras record, and against them, action will be taken,” Bangarappa proclaimed. He also directed the same officials to notify the teacher and block education officer, saying that he could not sit back and let such remarks pass without taking corrective action. “This is very stupid. He should be ashamed,” he added.
It has drawn a lot of heat, mostly from the political fraternity. BJP has condemned the response given by the minister of the Congress-led government. In a typical satirical twist, the BJP’s Karnataka unit shared a cartoon on social media where a student questions the capability of the education minister in Kannada. Political vandalism emphasizes the continuously unpredictable controversy surrounding language questions in the state and the significant sensibility of language politics in Karnataka.
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