00:00Hello and welcome to this special broadcast on One India, where we are discussing the
00:04latest mandate or some are saying the latest diktat from the Karnataka government,
00:10Sitaramayya's government, on the use of Urdu language and the proficiency for the
00:16Anganwadi teachers in certain districts. Joining us on the broadcast is TV Mohandas Pai,
00:21Chairman of Arun Capital Partners. Mr. Pai, thank you so much for joining One India.
00:26Thank you. Mr. Pai, what impact do you think that this particular directive from Sitaramayya's
00:33government, the decision on mandating Urdu proficiency for Anganwadi teachers
00:39could have on Karnataka's linguistic unity? I think this goes against Karnataka's linguistic
00:46unity because the government has not done the same for others whose mother tongue is elsewhere.
00:50There are many people whose mother tongue is Tulu, Konkani, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Hindi and Telugu,
00:57etc. You're only mandating one language to appease a certain class of people, which is very wrong.
01:03And I think that should be withdrawn by the government. But there is a problem that the
01:06government has to tackle. And that is true. It is true that there are a large number of
01:11children who speak only Urdu. And the mother tongue, the young children, they probably not
01:16learned any other language because that is their mother tongue. And when they come to Anganwadi,
01:20there has to be some communication. So maybe the government can also say instead of mandating
01:27that in these areas, spoken knowledge of these languages is preferable or something
01:34like that, just to make sure that the Anganwadi workers can communicate with the small children
01:39and talk to them. Because when children are three years, four years, they don't talk other languages.
01:45So there's a problem. We have to solve the problem. But this is not the way to solve the
01:49problem. This is typical of a government which takes a hammer and hammers everybody and has raised
01:54a lot of controversy all over the place. Why should it be only Urdu? Why can't it be Telugu?
01:59Why can't it be Tamil? Now all the people who love Kannada will say that it should be only
02:04in Kannada, which is wrong because mother tongue is not necessarily Kannada.
02:10For example, I speak Kannada. I give speeches in Kannada. I like Kannada. I'm a resident here.
02:16I'm a Kannadiga. My mother tongue is Konkani. I speak Hindi. I speak English. And that is the
02:21language that we all pick up as we grow. So I think they must not ruffle any feathers,
02:26withdraw that and say it is preferred. But they have to also solve the problem.
02:30And that's important. If you're in Bangalore in a Tamil dominated area, the children will speak
02:35only Tamil. So the Anganadi workers should know some languages. If you are in an area where North
02:41Indians are there, or people from Bengal are there or somewhere, they will speak only the local
02:46their language. But there's a problem that has to be solved. That we must acknowledge. But this is
02:50not the way. And that's why this has to be withdrawn to keep our unity together in Karnataka.
02:57Absolutely. Mr. Pai, talking about you touched upon several aspects and one of them was
03:02the appeasement to a particular community. If we could delve deeper here, what
03:07ulterior motive do you find or do you foresee for the Sitaramayya government behind this particular
03:13specific language choice? Well, I don't know whether there's any ulterior motive because I
03:19don't know data to make any accusations. I don't want to say that. But what I would say is this
03:24government has been accused of minority appeasement to a large extent because we are seeing that
03:30wherever people of the Muslim community riot and create violence, the police go very
03:36very soft on them. They arrest other people who complain. It happened near Mandya recently, right?
03:42When they were stoning on the Ganesha. You can't stone the Ganesha procession.
03:45You can't stone any religious procession. That's unacceptable. The people who are stoned
03:49will be caught and put into jail. And people are saying that the popular front of
03:56India people from Kerala, Malappuram have come there, infiltrated and they have to find out
04:01because there's a safety issue. Ordinary Karnatikas will not riot or will not do anything else.
04:06And Mandya is a Karnatika stronghold, right? And I think the government is going soft on
04:12all these criminal elements. They should not go soft on criminal elements of any community.
04:17But the Home Minister and the other ministers are going soft, trying to brush it away just for
04:21appeasement, which is very very wrong. We also saw that one minister of the cabinet trying to give
04:26away some valuable land to a minority organization in Chamrathpet, which has now gone to court.
04:32And this is the government that started this Thippu Jayanti. Thippu is a tyrant.
04:38Thippu was a tyrant. He was a jihadi. He was a killer. He was a butcher. He has destroyed Konkani
04:43temples. I'm a Konkani. I'm a minority protected by the constitution. He's destroyed the Konkani
04:49temples. He killed a huge number of Spodawas. He marched 20,000 Mangalore Catholics from
04:55Mangalore to Srirangapatna. And then only 10,000 survived when they went back, right? He has
05:01committed crimes against people of the state. And he was very clear that he wanted to convert
05:06everybody. He wrote about it. Thippu Na Kanasu. He wrote about the book. He was very clear about
05:11what he wanted to do. He's not the kind of figure that you must promote. Because the Congress party
05:16wants to promote Thippu Jayanti is fine because it's a communal party. It's a political party.
05:21It's a communal party. But government cannot do it. Government has to take care of all interests.
05:27Government cannot do it. Government is supposed to take care of all interests and not take the
05:32side of some religious minority which they're doing. For example, the Konkani community in
05:37Karnataka is discriminated. We don't get the same benefit that Muslim gets being minorities,
05:42even though we are a linguistic minority. But the constitution, the Kodavas are discriminated.
05:47The Thuluvas are discriminated. We're all minorities. There may be only some 10-12 lakh
05:52Konkanis. 15% of Karnataka population, that's one crore people are Muslims. But we are the real
05:58minority, right? But we are being discriminated in many areas because we don't get all the benefits
06:04that the Muslims get. And that is clearly a case of minority, religious appeasement that this
06:10government is doing in a very big way. For example, they gave money for Christians, a huge
06:15amount of money for Christians, the Muslims, the budget. But did they give anything for the Kodavas?
06:20Did they give anything for the Konkanis? Did they give anything for the Thulus? No,
06:24they did not do anything. Coming to the specific point, sir. Absolutely, absolutely. Given the
06:30essential role of the Anganwadi workers that they play in community outreach, do you think
06:35that language should be a criterion in their recruitment? And if so, should Kannada also have
06:41been given the equal importance? Look, Kannada should be given equal importance in Anganwadi
06:47and government schools in the state. On that there is no dispute. Okay? Okay. Because it's a state
06:52language. Right. And my view is everybody who lives in the state, whether you're born in the
06:59state or you come from outside, should learn Kannada to speak, converse with people because
07:04it is a way of showing respect for the local community where you are. True, true. I found that a
07:09North Indian lady who wrote that thing, if North Indians go away from Bangalore, Bangalore will
07:14get very offensive and very disturbing. That shows arrogance, lack of respect for the local community
07:20wherever you are. If I go stay in Bengal, I should learn Bengali to converse the Bengalis. I go stay
07:25in Chennai, I must learn Tamil. It's a way of showing respect to the people where I live.
07:31I've come from outside to a place where I'm enjoying the benefits paid for by the taxpayers
07:36who live there and build the state. It's fine. We are one country. We are one country. We can
07:41go stay anywhere, work anywhere. But we must respect the local culture, local sentiments.
07:45Now for many of these North Indian students, people from outside Karnataka to say,
07:49we will not learn Kannada. We only know English. We will not speak Kannada. I lived here 20 years.
07:54It's obnoxious. It's very obnoxious and shows lack of respect. And whenever we live in a
08:01community, we must become part of the community because we are living there. That's what human
08:06beings should do. So we must have the ability to converse in Kannada. Nobody is saying that
08:12you must write Kannada, you must do this. No, that is not correct. But you must converse,
08:16you must show respect, participate there and let us accept it. The state language is Kannada
08:23and that's fine. Similarly, the state government also should show respect to people who don't
08:29necessarily read Kannada. They should show respect. So they should show proper respect.
08:34That's why the three-language formula is the best formula for India.
08:37Right.
08:38Because we have a business language English, we have the state language Kannada,
08:42we have a language Hindi because we go all across and people in Tamil Nadu and states like Tamil
08:50Nadu who say they will not have Hindi are making a big mistake because they're depriving their
08:55people of a language which can help them get jobs and live in other parts of India.
08:59One final question, sir, to address the elephant in the room. Do you think that this move from the
09:03Siddharamayya government, if I may ask, is an outright politically motivated move?
09:10From all angles, it looks like that because this party has a history of Muslim appeasement
09:15and it looks like that because if they had, it should have circulated to say
09:19that they should also know other languages like Konkani, like Tulu, like Kodawa,
09:27and like let's say Tamil and Telugu in areas where there are children of these communities,
09:34I would have supported them. Only to say we would do in certain things, that's the wrong thing to
09:38do. Why are you targeting only one group and one language? We speak multiple languages. But the
09:45point remains, in Ayyanani work, Ayyanani worker has to converse with children in the language
09:50the children understand, not what you understand. These are all young children, they have not
09:53learned any language. They speak the language at home. Yes, they will pick up your language.
09:58Right.
09:58Keep on teaching them in Kannada, they speak up the language. They know. Children pick up very well.
10:02Yes, yes.
10:06That also is the real issue which needs to be addressed. You must admit that.
10:09Absolutely, sir. That's the beauty of this country also because such diversity comes
10:13through languages because that's what is a differentiating yet a unifying factor.
10:17And tampering and tinkering with that social fabric, I think, shouldn't be done.
10:22Mr. Pai, thank you so much. Steve Mohandas Pai there,
10:25chairman of the Arun Capital Partners, speaking to One India. Thank you, sir.
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