NEW DELHI: After igniting a language row within South Indian states by claiming that “Kannada is born out of Tamil,” actor turned politician Kamal Haasan on Wednesday said that politicians are not qualified to talk about language and the issue must be left to linguists.In a clarification, Haasan said, “I think what I said was said out of love and with a lot of historians who taught me language, history and that I didn’t mean anything.”“Politicians are not qualified to talk about language. They don’t have the education enough to talk about it. That includes me. So let’s leave all these very in depth discussions to historians, archaeologists and language experts. We are a family and so are the languages,” he added.The actor also cited linguists to present a “third angle” in the language debate and said, “If you look at it from the northern point of view. Yes. What they say according to them is right. If you look at it from Kanyakumari then what I say is right. There’s a third angle to it also … The scholars and language experts they will say they both are right.”This comes after Haasan reportedly said that “Kannada is born out of Tamil.”His claims were later criticised by Karnataka chief minister Siddharamaiah who called out the actor’s alleged ignorance of Kannada’s rich history.“Kannada has a long-standing history. Poor Kamal Haasan, he is unaware of it,” Siddharamaiah said.Karnataka BJP president BY Vijayendra also slammed Kamal Haasan for what he described as “disrespecting” Kannada while attempting to glorify his own mother tongue.Taking to X, Vijayendra demanded an “unconditional apology to Kannadigas” and said, “Artists should have the culture of respecting every language. It is the height of arrogance that actor Kamal Haasan, who has acted in many Indian languages, including Kannada, has insulted Kannada.”“Kannada is a prominent language in many parts of the world, including India, for centuries,” he added.Haasan triggered a controversy after expressed his deep connection to Tamil while promoting his upcoming movie ‘Thug Life’ in Bengaluru on Tuesday.“Uyire Urave Tamizhe (My life and my family is Tamil),” Haasan said.Turning to Shivarajkumar, who was sharing the stage with him, he remarked, “Actor Shivarajkumar is my family living in another state. Your language was born out of Tamil. So, you are included in that line.”Haasan had to leave the venue before members of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike could confront him.Praveen Shetty, president of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (Praveen Shetty faction), issued a stern warning, saying, “Today we are giving a strong warning to him. You want to do business in Karnataka and show your movies, stop insulting Kannada and Kannadigas. You were here to promote a movie but departed even before the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike reached there to blacken your face.”
