Lauding Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s move to make learning of Telugu mandatory in schools, Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu has suggested him to take a bold decision and make it mandatory to learn Telugu to secure a job in Andhra Pradesh. The Vice-President made these remarks after laying the foundation stone for the National Waterway-4 and National Highway (NH) projects in the State, here on Tuesday. Making the learning of Telugu mandatory would create a necessity.
“Isn’t your city Police Commissioner Gautam Sawang or IAS officer Satish Chandra not speaking Telugu?” he asked, and said that the civil servants learnt the local language in just six months as it was necessary for them. Unless there was a compelling need and necessity, who would show interest in learning the language, he asked.
‘Not against English’
Mr. Venkaiah Naidu, however, was quick to add that he was not against any other language, including English. “Learn any number of languages, but don’t ignore the mother tongue, which is like your eyes. Other languages are like spectacles,” he reasoned. “Parents have unnecessary apprehensions that their children would lag behind their peers if they don’t go to English medium or convent schools. Neither me nor Mr. Chandrababu Naidu went to English medium schools. For that matter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also did not go to any English medium school,” he observed.