Malayalam writers on Friday protested against dropping Malayalam from a language training programme meant for MPs and other officials organised by the Parliament Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE).
The PRIDE is conducting a 30-hour virtual language training programme for MPs, legislators from Union Territories, officials and their families with the objective of boosting the country’s language diversity.
Six foreign languages and six Indian languages were considered in the first phase of training.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla inaugurated the training programme on Tuesday.
When French, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and German were selected among foreign languages, the six Indian languages chosen were Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Odia.
Jnanpith laureate M.T. Vasudevan Nair inaugurated the online meeting that protested against dropping Malayalam from the list of Indian languages. He demanded that Malayalam being a classical language should be given the priority it deserved.
“PRIDE should give Malayalam the due consideration,” said poet Manambur Rajan Babu, who presided over the meeting.
Among the writers who aired their concerns over non-inclusion of Malayalam included C. Radhakrishnan, Vaisakhan, Alankode Leelakrishnan, Chandramati, Anil Vallathol, P.K. Gopi, and K. Sreekumar.
KDA protest
The Kannada Development Authority (KDA) led by T.S. Nagabharana had raised a strong banner of protest against dropping Kannada from the list of languages. Former Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for ignoring Kannada.
Revised Schedule
Following protests, PRIDE clarified that training would be given in all Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. As many as 22 languages have been included in the Eight Schedule. .
As per the PRIDE’s revised training schedule, classes of Guajarati, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Sanskrit will be held from July 5.
Classes of Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Urdu, Santhali, Nepali, Meitei (Manipuri), Bodo, Dogri, Konkani, Maithili and Punjabi will start from July 12.
