Affront to non-Hindi speakers: Chidambaram slams Hindi titles for Bills

Congress leader P. Chidambaram criticised the government’s practice of using Hindi words in the titles of Bills, calling it an affront to non-Hindi-speaking people and warning that it undermines the promise of English as an Associate Official Language.

New Delhi: Congress leader P Chidambaram has slammed the “increasing practice” of the government using Hindi words in the titles of the bills and said the change is an “affront” to the non-Hindi-speaking people.

Chidambaram said the non-Hindi-speaking people cannot identify a Bill/Act with titles that are in Hindi words written in English letters, and they cannot pronounce them.

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“I am opposed to the increasing practice of the government using Hindi words written in English letters in the title of the Bills to be introduced in Parliament,” the former Union minister said late Monday night.

Hitherto, the practice was to write the title of the Bill in English words in the English version and in Hindi words in the Hindi version of the Bill, Chidambaram said.

“When no one pointed out any difficulty in the 75 year practice, why should government make a change?” he said.

“This change is an affront to non-Hindi speaking people and to States that have an official language other than Hindi,” the Congress leader said.

Successive governments have reiterated the promise that English will remain an Associate Official Language, Chidambaram said. “I fear that promise is in danger of being broken,” the Congress MP said.