Bharat Ekta Andolan (BEA) has complained that the Union government is deliberately neglecting Kannada. Andolan president Mahadev Horatti has alleged that the Union government has cut research and other grants for Kannada in the last decade, while allocating disproportionately high levels of funds for Sanskrit, Urdu and Hindi.
The Union government has allocated ₹2,532.59 crore over the past 10 years for the development and promotion of Sanskrit and research, though the number of people learning and speaking Sanskrit is very few.
Urdu, spoken by 4.9 crore people, has received ₹837.94 crore and Hindi has been granted ₹426.99 crore. Neither Urdu nor Hindi is classified as a classical language. In comparison, Kannada has received only ₹12.8 crore, he said.
Mr. Horatti said that the Union government is following a policy of discrimination. Other classical languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Odia have also been treated unfairly. He urged the Congress and other parties to fight this injustice.
