BANGALORE:The commemoration of Hindi Diwas on Wednesday, September 14, has sparked a controversy in Karnataka, with the JD (S) and BJP taking opposing sides.

H.D. Kumaraswamy, a former chief minister, warned Basavaraj Bommai in a letter that celebrating Hindi Diwas would be an act of injustice toward the country. The BJP has rebutted his letter, mentioning that the people of Karnataka are shrewd enough to understand the political motive and they wouldn't care.

But because they don't want to take any chances, the police have chosen to maintain strict security throughout the state, particularly in Bangalore.

Kumaraswamy said, the nation is a vast federation of 560 provinces with various social and cultural ideologies that have come together despite the thousands of languages and sublanguages that make up the country.

On September 14, the central government would force Karnataka to celebrate Hindi Diwas, which he described as a betrayal of Kannadigas by the ruling BJP. "On this land providing preferential treatment to one language is an insult to the land," he said.

He pleaded with Bommai to refrain from honouring Hindu diwas at the expense of Kannada people. State Minister for Education B.C. Nagesh responded forcefully to the letter, saying that Kannada people would not heed his appeal and that Hindi Diwas had been observed since 1949.

Nagesh said that the matter has now been politicised for political gain and that Kumaraswamy intends to exploit everything.  He said that if such was their philosophy, his father, former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, should have stopped the festivities.

Nagesh continued by saying that the celebration of Hindi Diwas has been going on since 1949 and was not started by the BJP or Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He declared, "The BJP government is devoted to the promotion of all regional Indian languages.

Every year on September 14, Hindi Diwas is observed to encourage the use of the language throughout the country. On September 14, 1953, the first Hindi Day was observed when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's prime minister at the time, decided to mark this day as Hindi Diwas. The Constituent Assembly approved Hindi written in the Devanagari script as India's official language on September 14, 1949.

Hindi Diwas- Date, History, & Importance

Shivraj govt's big initiative, now Medical-Engineering will be taught in Hindi

KCR sharpens criticism against BJP ahead of national plunge