Bengaluru: A minister in BS Yediyurappa’s cabinet was schooled in the Assembly on Thursday by former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah for not being pronounce the name of the state properly.
Siddaramaiah, who is the Leader of Opposition in the House, was discussing how Karnataka was behind Gujarat in milk production and what the government could do to incentivise production.
At this point, he asked Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu Chauhan, "Did you understand?" Siddaramaiah then said, "He's from Maharashtra… Bombay. That's why I was asking him. I had earlier gone to Bidar and attended a review meeting. I couldn't understand his language as he was speaking Kannada, Hindi, Banjara. Have you learnt Kannada now?"
Education Minister Suresh Kumar then tried to intervene, but Siddaramaiah said Chauhan is originally from Maharashtra, though he is a resident of “Karnatak” now, and hence, unable to pronounce the name of the state properly.
Chauhan hit back saying he belonged to "Karnatak(a)". "That's false information about me sir. Please remove. My native is Karnatak(a). Aurad, Karnatak(a),” he said.
Soon after, Siddaramaiah said, "Karnatak, Karnatak, Karnatak… Do we say that when we speak in Kannada? It is Karnataka. Karnataka!".
The southern states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu sometimes are pronounced by non-natives, especially those speaking in Hindi, without the last ‘a’ in the name and become ‘Karnatak’, ‘Keral’ and ‘Tamil Nad’.