A communication by Panchayati Raj Ministry in chaste bureaucratic Hindi has left Parliamentarians from non-Hindi States exasperated.
Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP T. Satpathy took to Twitter to air his grievances. ‘Why are Union Ministers forcing Hindi on non Hindi speaking Indians? Is this an attack on other languages?’ he tweeted along with the letter by Panchayati Raj Minister Narendra Tomar.
The August 11 dated letter is to invite Parliamentarians to the government’s Sankalp Se Siddhi (‘Resolve to Achieve’) programmes being planned at the Panchayat level to discuss ‘India at 2022’. The five-day programme will be organised from August 21-25.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Satpathy said that imposition of Hindi and the purported isolation of non-Hindi speakers by the government is an “anti-national†behaviour.
“I think the government probably confuses Hindi with Hindutva,†he said.
During the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) tenure all official communications used to be sent in both Hindi and English. “These government communiqués contain important details of policy and programmes. So they are putting people like me under great disadvantage. Either I run around to find a person who can read chaste Hindi in Odisha, or simply be ignorant about whatever the government wants to tell me,†Mr. Satpathy said.
Mr. Satpathy is not the only one to complain. On August 9, speaking during the Quit India Movement’s 75th anniversary event, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (AIADMK) MP and deputy speaker M.Thambidurai sought to remind the Lok Sabha that Hindi is not the national language. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Tiruchi Shiva, speaking to welcome newly elected Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, started his speech in Tamil. “I had to cut short my speech in Tamil because no translator was present. Even 70 years after Independence why do we need give a one-hour notice before speaking in our mother tongue?†he asked.
Mr. Satpathy plans to raise the issue in the next Parliament session. “I will ask Mr. Narendra Tomar to provide me a translation. I can not go around looking for a translator,†he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Tomar’s office claims that the Minister carries out all his work in Hindi. “The Minister normally does all his work in Hindi. So it is not as if he deliberately wrote to all Parliamentarians in Hindi. The instruction to the district administration from the Ministry’s Secretary has been conveyed in English,†a senior official at the Minister’s office said.