BANGALORE: Chief minister Siddaramaiah’s diktat that he will return files carrying notings by officials in English has prompted a debate on the practical difficulties in implementing the directive.
According to official sources, the main hurdle is knowledge of the language itself. Only 10% non-local officials are well versed in Kannada, the official language of the state. Others, mainly hailing from the Hindi heartland, feel uncomfortable in using Kannada for administrative purpose despite having efficient official language employees at their disposal. Though they are taught Kannada, officials admit it is elementary in nature.
P Manivannan, IAS officer and KSHIP chief, though feels there can’t be two opinions that all government orders and circulars going to public must be in Kannada. “Most of the government works happen in Kannada, though communication with the Union government and other agencies has to be in English,” he said.
Incidentally, some officials, whose mother tongue is Kannada, too prefer to write in English. “We can use Kannada only for simple correspondence. Files to the Centre have to be written in English,” said a senior IAS officer. They say when corresponding with the Centre on issues like obtaining clearance for, minutes written in Kannada can only delay the process.
Kannada Development Authority chairman Mukhyamantri Chandru, however, does not concur with these views. “Files sent to the central government have to be written in English for obvious reasons. But why are inter-department files written in English?” he asks.
He, however, admitted things have dramatically improved when compared to a decade ago as a majority of bureaucrats and departments have taken to the local language.
Alok Mohan, ADGP (administration), claims the police department comes out top when it comes to the implementation of Kannada as official language. “We have ensured at least 90% of the department correspondence is in local language, including the FIRs.”
There are also historical and legal issues related to Kannada’s implementation in administration. Article 343 of the Constitution and the Official Languages Act says the official language of the Union government will be Hindi. However, the attempt to adopt Hindi as the official language was strongly opposed by several non-Hindi speaking states, especially Tamil Nadu, which erupted in violent protests in the 1960s. A compromise was struck allowing the use of English also for official purposes.
Thus the Constitution and the Act allowed English to be used for transaction of business in Parliament, by the Centre and states and for certain purposes in high courts for 15 years. Later, the Act was amended in 1967 to allow continuation of English for official purposes.
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