Bengaluru: Sunday is a holiday in Bengaluru. Most were at home resting. But some were at work – masking the hindi signage on the Namma Metro Boards. On Monday morning, when Bengaluru’s working population stepped out of their homes at the start of a busy week, they were surpriesed, but as things turned out later, not perturbed much by the fact that
at Bengaluru’s Chickpete and Majestic metro stations the clear white stencilling announcing the station name in Hindi was masked with what looked like craft paper. What remained was the name of the stations in Kannada, the state langauge and English, the link language between north and the south. Earlier these blue and white boards had the station names in three languages including Hindi.
But whodunit? This is question no one is willing to answer at the moment. There aren pictures of people standing atop the Metro building and putting duct tape on the sign boards, but surprisingly no one seems to know who is behind the act. And suprisingly the other Metro stations have been spared. Perhaps for the moment. For their part the police distanced themselves from the move to cover up Hindi signs at Kempegowda Interchange and Chickpete stations. In a statement, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) M.N. Anucheth said, “I categorically state that we have not advised any such thing. Also, on our own initiative, we have deployed additional personnel in a few sensitive stations in the light of the development.” Pro-Kannada activists, who had started the Namma Metro Hindi Beda campaign, denied any participation in covering up the metro signs.
BMRCL officials remained unavailable for comment so it is not evident immediately if they had been pressured into blanking the signage. The company has approached the government for instructions after some organisations submitted a memorandum last week seeking the removal of Hindi signage from Namma Metro stations. However, no instruction has been issued as yet, media reports reveal. But the state government seems in favour of a bilingual approach especially as elections approach, and political parties begin to feel that regionalism can win over nationalism. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been speaking in favour, and the demand is getting louder with the #NammaMetroHindiBeda campaign on Twitter picking up speed.
The Kannada Development Authority (KDA) too has jumped into the fray, issuing a notice to the BMRCL on June 23rd returnable within a week, but to which it is yet to reply. KDA held that the usage was prima facie a violation of the law.
Incidentally and perhaps relevant to the issue at hand is the ownership of the BMRCL which operates the Namma Metro. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL), is a joint venture of the Government of India and the Government of Karnataka.
