As the row over Hindi as a common language for the country set off by Home Minister Amit Shah continues, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan opposed any attempts to "impose" the language.
Yediyurappa on Monday asserted that Kannada is the principal language in the state and its importance would never be compromised.
"All official languages in our country are equal. However, as far as Karnataka is concerned, #Kannada is the principal language. We will never compromise its importance and are committed to promote Kannada and our state's culture," Yediyurappa tweeted.
Kamal Haasan said it was a promise made to the country decades back which "no Shah, Sultan or Samrat must renege on."
Further, India was an "excellent feast" and that such imposition would lead to "nausea", he said.
On Saturday, Shah had pitched for a common language for the country and said it is Hindi which is spoken the most and that it can unite the whole country.
Haasan, referring to the 2017 pro-jallikattu protests here, said "it was just a protest, the battle for our language will be exponentially bigger than that."
India or Tamil Nadu "does not need or deserve such a battle," he said in a video.
Referring to the country's National Anthem, Haasan said it was penned in a language (Bengali) that was not mother tongue to most citizens.
"Most of the nation happily sings its National Anthem in Bengali with pride, and will continue to do so."
"The reason is the poet (Rabindranath Tagore) who wrote the National Anthem gave due respect to all languages and culture within the Anthem. And hence, it became our Anthem," he said.
There should be no attempts to make an inclusive India into an exclusive one as "all will suffer because of such short-sighted folly," he said.
The veteran actor signed off hailing Tamil language, Tamil people and the Indian nation.
The home minister had said on Saturday efforts will be made to expand Hindi to different parts of the country and asked everyone to use their native languages as much as possible.
"India has many languages and every language has its importance. But it is absolutely necessary that the entire country should have one language that becomes India's identity globally," he had said.
(With inputs from PTI)
