Karnataka govt ready to issue clarifications on bills returned by Governor: Priyank Kharge

Bidar (Karnataka) [India], January 10 (ANI): Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge on Saturday said the state government would provide legal clarifications on the two bills returned by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot.
However, he said that if the bills have been returned due to Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) "whim", the Karnataka government will decide its future course of action.
Speaking to reporters here, Kharge said, "We will give legal clarifications on the bills returned by the Karnataka Governor. If he has done so only due to the BJP's whim, then we will see what to do. We will look into it if the Governor needs some clarification on the bills (passed by the Assembly)."
The minister added that the government would also look into whether the Governor required any specific clarifications on the bills passed by the Assembly, and asserted that the state government was prepared to address all such concerns.
This comes after Governor Gehlot returned the Karnataka Scheduled Castes (Sub-classification) Bill and the Shree Chamundeshwari Kshetra Development Authority and Certain Other Laws (Amendment) Bill.
Of the 22 bills passed by the Karnataka assembly, the Governor has approved 19 bills.
Meanwhile, Gehlot has kept the Karnataka Hate Speech and Hate Crimes (Prevention) Bill "under consideration".
On Friday, BJP spokesperson Prakash Reddy criticised Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's remarks on language policy, accusing the Congress of trying to divide people on the basis of language, state, and religion.
He asserted that the Centre and the BJP have never imposed Hindi on any state and support respect for all languages.
Speaking to ANI, Reddy said, "Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah says they will protest for imposing Hindi. The government of India and our party are very clear that, since independence, no language has been imposed on any state. Language is a means of communication. Hindi may not be mandatory, but there should be a national language. The Congress party is trying to divide people of the country in the name of language, state and religion."
This came after Siddaramaiah opposed Kerala's Malayalam Language Bill, 2025, saying that "promotion cannot become imposition".
"India's unity rests on respecting every language and every citizen's right to learn in their mother tongue," Siddaramaiah posted on X.
The CM objected to the Bill's provision mandating Malayalam as the compulsory first language across Kerala, saying that it "strikes at the heart of linguistic freedom". (ANI)