Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of spreading “misleading things” in the context of financing for Urdu, Kannada.
The BJP alleges that the Siddaramaiah -led government is ignoring Kannada and allocating more money for Urdu.
On Tuesday, the Chief Minister not only described the BJP’s allegations as a lie but also called it a “effort” to create communal tension. His remarks came after the BJP’s Karnataka unit posted on the social media platform ‘X’ that the Siddaramaiah-led government has allocated Rs 100 crore to promote Urdu in 2025-26, while only Rs 32 crore has been sanctioned for Kannada.
Siddaramaiah said in a statement, “The BJP is spreading misleading things in Karnataka that our government is ignoring Kannada and is taking the side of Urdu. This is not only far from the truth but it is a deliberate effort to create communal tension. It is unfortunate that a national party is behaving like an irresponsible ‘internet troll’ and spreading such baseless wrong things. ”
Giving details of allocation from 2025 to 2026, the Chief Minister said that Rs 34,438 crore has been allocated to the Department of Primary and Secondary Education and Rs 4,150 crore to schools under Social Welfare and other departments.
He said, “This is a total of Rs 38,688 crore, all are for education from Kannada-medium. Apart from this, Rs 999.30 crore has been kept separate to maintain government schools and improve infrastructure. All this supports Kannada education. So when the BJP claims that only Rs 32 crore was allocated for Kannada, it is a political lie to mislead people. ”
Siddaramaiah clarified that the objective of Rs 100 crore allocated under the Minority Welfare Department is to upgrade Urdu-medium schools with better classes, teachers, textbooks and infrastructure.
