Language war: BBMP sends notices to shops to remove non-Kannada boards

The civic body had conducted a similar drive in 2017; after the initial few raids and warnings, however, the drive had fizzled out

A divided party

 

The passing away of former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Monday brought to the fore, yet again, the divisions within the Communist Party of India (Marxist). It took over five hours for the CPI (M) polit bureau to issue a press statement mourning his death but the statement had no mention of Chatterjee's four-decade-long association with the party. In Kolkata, a section of CPI (M) leaders "expressed regret" at not being able to re-induct the 89-year-old into the party. Senior leaders Nepaldeb Bhattacharya and Sujan Chakraborty said that was their lifelong regret. CPI (M) Bengal unit chief Surjya Kanta Mishra said Chatterjee was not in touch with the party in the last few years but that was irrelevant since "he was above the party". Some party leaders also said the "arrogance" of the then leadership of the party had led to his expulsion.

 

Check facts, please

 

Some politicians have a tenuous relationship with facts. On Saturday, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah said his party cannot be dubbed anti-Bengali as insinuated by Trinamool Congress when a great son of Bengal, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, founded it. Many pointed out that Mookerjee founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, an earlier avatar of the BJP, in 1951. The BJP was founded in 1980. On Monday, in a letter to the Election Commission, Shah expressed his support for 'one nation one election' saying there were instances when people in a state had voted for one party at the Centre and another in the state when Lok Sabha and assembly polls were held simultaneously. He said this happened in Karnataka in 1980 when voters chose the Congress at the Centre and the "Janata Dal (Secular)" in the state. Shah was wrong on two counts: There were no simultaneous elections in 1980, and while the "Janata Party" did win the assembly polls, the year was 1983.

 

Language war brewing

 

Looks like a language war is brewing in Bengaluru. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is said to be conducting raids across the IT city to check if shops and establishments have signages in Kannada. The civic body has sent notices to more then 3,000 commercial establishments asking them to ensure that their display boards and signages have 60 per cent coverage in Kannada, in the absence of which their trade licences would be scrapped. The civic body had conducted a similar drive last year; after the initial few raids and warnings, however, the drive had fizzled out.