Pro-Kannada group asks for K’taka Education Minister to be fired for not supporting the language

The group wanted Tanveer Sait to be replaced as head of the Department of Primary Education.
Pro-Kannada group asks for K’taka Education Minister to be fired for not supporting the language
Pro-Kannada group asks for K’taka Education Minister to be fired for not supporting the language
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Kannada Sahitya Sammelana President Chandrashekar Patil has appealed to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to replace Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Tanveer Sait, for ignoring their recommendations on school textbooks for students in Karnataka. 

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the 83rd Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in Mysuru on Friday, the poet appealed to the Chief Minister to replace the minister in favour of a ‘pro-Kannada’ minister. While clarifying that their demand was not to drop Sait from the ministry, they wanted him to be replaced as head of the Department of Primary Education, reported The Hindu.

“Karnataka should lead all the states in India in the fight to make regional languages as the medium of instruction. The approach of Sait does not seem to be pro-Kannada. The chief minister cannot abandon his efforts saying that the prime minister has not replied to his letters. Parliament should bring in changes to the Constitution to make mother tongue the medium of instruction,” he said during his speech.

“He has not even followed the instructions of the chief minister in this regard. The Education department should be entrusted to a democratic and pro-Kannada leader,” he added.

Previous President of the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, Baragur Ramachandrappa, who is also the chairman of the Textbook Revision Committee, criticised Sait’s’ ‘anti-Kannada’ approach and expressed his anger at the minister for not encouraging the Sahitya Parishat’s efforts to introduce regional textbooks for students of classes six to ten.

“After we met the Chief Minister, who said he would to discuss the matter with Mr. Sait and that the latter would contact us, there has been no [communication]. Our efforts to meet him have also failed,” he said, as reported by The Hindu.

“I had told the chief minister not to accept the imposition of the Central syllabus on states. I had stressed the need for a ‘Naada Patya’ (state syllabus) like our state song. The chief minister had said that he would ask EducationMinister Tanveer Sait to discuss the issue with me. However, Sait has not contacted me so far,” he said speaking to Deccan Herald.

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