Pro-Kannada groups storm shops pulling down English language signboards
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Bengaluru: The groups that call for promoting Kannada language tore down English language signboards on shops and businesses in the city.
Footage showed men and women in yellow and red scarfs storming the courtyard of shops, according to NDTV.
Violent protests were reported at several places in the state capital including the Kempegowda International Airport.
A man was seen reportedly attacking the English signboard of a salon and spa.
Truckloads of men wearing red and yellow scarves ( the colour of Kannada flag) moved along the streets.
A group of men protested outside an Airtel store, while one man defaced a shop's red signboard in English by spraying black paint over it.
Several of the protesters were later detained by the police.
The protesters wanted shops and businesses to immediately implement the city civic body’s direction of placing 60 per cent of their signs in Kannada.
The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike is widely seen as a right-wing group pushing for Kannada language.
Meanwhile, BBMP chief Tushar Giri Nath said commercial stores have time till February 28 to comply with the direction.
In the event of failing to do so, they will have to face legal action including suspension of business licences.
The language row came to fore after CM Siddaramaiah said in October that everybody living in Karnataka should learn to speak Kannada.
‘We are all Kannadigas. People speaking different languages have settled in here (and) everyone living in this state should learn to speak Kannada,’ he was quoted as saying.