A man who peeled off stickers that were hiding Hindi instructions in Bengaluru’s Namma Metro train apologized to Kannadigas after Kannada activists paid a visit to his office on Monday, pro-Kannada activist Rupesh Rajanna said.
A video of the man, identified as Akshat Gupta, peeling stickers meant to hide Hindi instructions in Bengaluru’s Metro went viral earlier, with many language activists opposing the act. The video had over 15,000 views on Twitter at the time this article was being written.
It showed Akshat Gupta questioning why instructions in Hindi have been hidden with tape, after which he proceeds to peels them off and reveal the said Hindi instructions. This prompted a flood of comments on social media, with internet users asking why there should be instructions in Hindi on a metro train in Bengaluru.
“Why so much hate for our Southern languages in North India? Why don’t we have Telugu/Kannada/Tamil/Malayalam signboards in your metros?” one user asked.
“Our own language is enough for us in our state, English is used as the communication language, we don’t need any other language,” another said.
Following a renewed debate on Hindi imposition in Karnataka, language activists paid a visit to Gupta’s office, after which a new video of Gupta emerged, in which he apologized for peeling off the stickers.
“Today we visited the company of Akshat Gupta, who had removed a Hindi sticker in the metro train and justified the imposition of Hindi, and convinced him that Kannadigas will not tolerate the imposition of Hindi,” Rupesh Rajanna, former Bigg Boss contestant and social activist, wrote on Twitter.
In the fresh video, Gupta is heard saying, “Hi all Kannadigas, it’s by mistake I removed the stickers, so I am sorry for it. I am also against Hindi imposed on regional language, so I respect my karma bhoomi.”
“Please accept my apology,” he adds.
Bengaluru cyberspace, primarily Twitter, witnesses language-related debates time and again.
