Bengaluru, 9 Jan

Kannada and Culture Minister of Karnataka, Shivaraj Tangadagi, said a delegation from Karnataka led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar will meet President Droupadi Murmu and urge her not to give assent to the Kerala government's Malayalam Language Bill.

The Malayalam Language Bill, 2025 seeks to formally adopt Malayalam as the official language of Kerala, and mandate its use across government, education, judiciary, public communication, commerce, and the digital domain, subject to constitutional provisions. Kerala currently recognises both English and Malayalam as official languages.

However, the Karnataka Congress has alleged that the Bill will infringe upon the rights of Kannadigas in Kerala’s Kasargod region, terming it “Malayalam imposition”.

According to article 350(b) of the Indian Constitution, linguistic minorities should be protected, Kerala-Kasaragod linguistic officer should be appointed and the opinion of people living there should be taken, Tangadagi told press.

“The Malayalam Language Bill sent to the Governor for assent has put the Kannadigas in the border towns in trouble. We will meet the President of India Droupadi Murmu and apprise her about the development,” the minister said.

There are about 7.5 lakh Kannadigas in Kasargod, he said. There are about 210 Kannada schools functioning in the border regions.

“Injustice should not be meted out to the Kannadigas. We also will not let it happen. I am also considering to send a team to Kasaragod,” he said.

Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah on Friday wrote to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressing his “serious concern”. He urged the Kerala government to not go ahead with the Bill.

He said that it violated Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution which guarantee the right to conserve language and administer educational institutions of choice.

“Any legislative measure must reflect not only constitutional legality, but constitutional morality,” he said. “If this Bill is passed, Karnataka will oppose it by exercising every constitutional right available to us, in defence of linguistic minorities and the plural spirit of our Republic. This position flows not from confrontation, but from our duty to the Constitution and to the people whose voices must never be marginalised.”