VASCO
Kannadigas in the port town have lauded Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane for his fluent Kannada speech during an election rally in Karnataka.
A video of Rane addressing voters at Haliyal-Kannada to vote for the BJP candidate had gone viral on social media and while it received mixed reactions from netizens, Rane’s command over Kannada was hailed by the Kannadigas in Vasco.
Speaking to media persons, Vasco-based Kannada Dhangar Samaj President Sharan Meti said he was pleasantly surprised with the fluency of Kannada spoken by Rane at Karnataka during an election rally.
"I watched the video over 10 times and event got calls from many of our people to tell me about the Rane’s speech in Kannada during his campaign in Karnataka. I am shocked, surprised and happy, all at the same time, because I could not believe that Rane could speak Kannada without any flaws or grammatical errors or even pronunciation mistakes," said Meti.
"He spoke in pure North Canara Kannada language and we feel he may have learnt the language as a passion or probably he may have an interest in the language because he may have Kannadiga voters in his constituency.”
“We have seen Chief Minister Pramod Sawant also tried to speak in Kannada during an election campaign but Rane’s speech in fluent Kannada left Goan Kannadigas dumbstruck. We are happy that the CM and Health Minister are trying to speak Kannada, which is one of the Indian languages,” said Meti.
Meti said language must not be used to create a divide among residents.
“While I may be a Kannadiga, I am based in Goa and I also speak Konkani here. Learning a language is a talent and when we have people in politics, it is vital that they have a keen interest to learn all languages which can help them connect with their people who may be their voters in Goa," said Meti.
