Bengaluru: If the Karnataka government were to get its way, all multinational corporations (MNCs) operating out of the state would be mandated to list the number of Kannadigas, or locals, working for them.
The proposal, people aware of the developments say, is part of the efforts being made to assuage pro-Kannada groups angry about “outsiders” — or those from other states — allegedly taking away employment opportunities generated in the state.
“There are discussions (within the government) that industries should display on boards the number of locals it has employed,” Shivaraj Tangadagi, Karnataka’s minister for backward classes, Kannada, and culture, told reporters in Bengaluru Wednesday.
He said a committee was deliberating on formulating laws to this effect, adding that the failure to comply could attract harsh penalties, such as cancellation of licences.
Bellwether information technology companies like Infosys and Wipro, among several others, are headquartered in Bengaluru.
This comes at a time when the state’s Congress government is facing accusations that the implementation of its election guarantees has caused the state to go “bankrupt”. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has so far denied the allegation.
The state government has also tabled a bill mandating that all signboards should be 60 percent in Kannada.
Not everyone, though, even within the ruling establishment, appears to be on board with the latest developments. One serving minister and another senior Congress leader told ThePrint that they were unaware of why such a proposal was being pursued.
Meanwhile, some Opposition leaders see the move as a diversionary tactic and “political drama”.
Though language-based issues in the past have shown to have little political capital in Karnataka, it is a deeply emotional topic with leaders from across the aisle rarely going against such proposals.
The move has not gone down well with pro-corporate voices like T.V. Mohandas Pai, who, in the past, has recommended that the government incentivises hiring of locals instead of penalising companies.
In an interview to India Today, Pai said that such a move was “a very wrong thing, is unwelcoming and creates fear in the minds of investors and MNCs”. The past four months had seen “a set of people going around the city abusing traders, abusing non-Kannadigas, breaking down and blackening signboards”, Pai, an entrepreneur formerly on the board of Infosys, said in the interview.
“An element of fear has been created in the city of Bangalore because of all these kinds of people doing this violence and the police keeping quiet,” he said.
Candidates working at MNCs are hired based on interviews and tests and are not discriminated against based on any regional grounds, he said, adding that the state government has failed to provide any kind of skill development.
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‘Drama for political consumption’
It was the former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Basavaraj Bommai that first proposed a law mandating that priority should be given to Kannadigas in jobs and higher education. Called the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development Act, 2022, the bill even proposed penalties for non-compliant companies.
It defines a person as ‘Kannadiga’ if their parents/legal guardians are original residents of Karnataka or have been residing in Karnataka for not less than 15 years, as well as the criteria that this person can read and write in Kannada.
The latest bill, called the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development (Amendment) Bill, 2024, is an amendment to that law. In it, the government is trying to explicitly direct all businesses to have 60 percent of their signboards in Kannada.
Karnataka attracts talent from across the country, with hundreds of companies setting up base in Bengaluru, a city known variously as India’s “startup hub”, “IT capital”, and “aviation hub”.
But this isn’t the first time that Siddaramaiah and his government have championed the language cause. His previous stint as chief minister from 2013 and 2018 saw him pan the Centre’s stand on the three-language policy as “not reasonable” and urge the Narendra Modi-led central government to acknowledge the practical utility of Kannada and English languages for signages in the city’s ‘Namma Metro’.
This pushback from Siddaramaiah saw other southern states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Telangana — where language is a sensitive issue — and even states like West Bengal and Maharashtra join forces to accuse the Modi government of Hindi imposition.
Siddaramaiah is also among chief ministers who have been repeatedly trying to corner the Modi government over what he calls “unfair” devolution of taxes for states.
Karnataka is among the most favoured destinations for foreign and domestic capital. At least 400 out of the top Fortune 500 companies have some presence in the state, especially in Bengaluru.
Karnataka’s push for hiring more Kannadigas in MNCs has sparked a fierce online debate, with some suggesting that companies would be better off in states such as Gujarat, Telangana, and Maharashtra.
C.N. Ashwath Narayan, a senior BJP leader and former IT minister, said demands that Kannadigas should be hired more is justified to find a balance between outsiders and them.
“It’s not that we are against other people. There should be a balance,” he said. “Where (should) these people who have lost land, livelihoods, where should they go? So far, there was no noise about this and it is a good thing if the government is able to provide skills, engage and employ them, (and) give them (the) required skill,” Narayan told reporters in Bengaluru.
However, he said much of the proposal will remain a pipedream since the Congress government was using the issue as political drama to “divert attention and harass companies”.
“When it comes to implementation, no government, no officials take interest…they just use this to harass the companies, (and don’t have) even a little bit of concern for the people of Karnataka. It’s a political drama for political consumption,” he said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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