Chandigarh: Two former Karnataka chief ministers have jumped into a debate after Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn responded to Kannada superstar Kiccha Sudeep, saying that Hindi is India's national language, sparking a language row.
The leaders offered a reality check to the actor. The Karnataka leaders slammed Ajay Devgn and pointed out that Hindi is not India's national language. While former Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah strongly criticised Ajay Devgn's tweet saying Hindi was never our national language, Janata Dal (Secular)'s HD Kumaraswamy backed Kannada actor Sudeep Sanjeev's remark that Hindi is not the national language and directly attacked the Bollywood actor, calling him a BJP mouthpiece.
"Ajay Devgn blabbered as a mouthpiece of BJP's Hindi Nationalism of one nation, one tax, one language & one government," Mr Kumaraswamy said in a tweet. Ajay Devgn, who is gearing up for the release of his film 'Runway 34', publicly replied to Kiccha Sudeep's opinion on Hindi not being the national language of India, on Wednesday.
The, 'Singham' actor took to his Twitter and tagged Sudeep as he tweeted, "Brother, if Hindi is not our national language according to you, then why do you release films made in your mother tongue dubbed in Hindi? Hindi is our mother tongue, and our national language, and it will always be. Jana Gana Mana."
Sudeep had earlier made a comment at the film launch of 'R: The Deadliest Gangster Ever'. When probed about a Kannada film becoming a pan-Indian hit, Sudeep told media, "You said that a pan India film was made in Kannada. I'd like to make a small correction. Hindi is no more a national language. They (Bollywood) are doing pan-India films today. They are struggling (to find success) by dubbing in Telugu and Tamil, but it's not happening. Today, we are making films that are going everywhere."
Incidentally, Ajay was recently seen in a cameo appearance in superstar director S.S. Rajamouli's magnum opus, 'RRR' along with Ram Charan, Jr NTR and Alia Bhatt. The film, which was a pan-India release, was dubbed in five languages - Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada.