Bengaluru: While the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border issue, specifically based on language, continues, the controversy has now struck schools established in the border areas. The Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress government’s decision to mandatorily impose the Telugu and Urdu languages in the English medium schools along the border of the two states has come as a shock to the Karnataka government.
Reacting to this, Karnataka state education minister Suresh Kumar has written to CM Jagan, urging him to revoke the orders, as a lot of Kannada speaking people reside in the border region.
In his letter, the minister stated that Karnataka and AP were like ‘brothers’ from the time of Vijayanagar Emperor Krishnadevaraya and that both the states share a strong bond in terms of language and harmony.
“An imposition of Telugu and Urdu languages in the border schools will disrupt the relationship between the two states. This will demoralize the Kannada speaking community along the Andhra border. This will hurt the sentiments of the Kannadigas,” he wrote.
The letter continued to say that, by this decision, the lives of Kannada teachers along the Andhra border will be at stake and that the children will be driven far from their mother tongue, Kannada.
Suresh Kumar has requested the AP government to either continue the Kannada language or open linguistic minority schools and move the children to such schools and so that they can learn their mother tongue.
Meanwhile, he also reminded the Andhra CM that several Telugu medium schools function in Karnataka, contributing to the Karnataka government and the state as a whole.
